It Takes One

Criminal psychologist Audrey Harte, the feisty heroine of Kessler’s tense, fast-paced debut, sometimes appears as an expert on When Kids Kill, a TV show based in Los Angeles. Years ago in her hometown of Edgeport, Maine, Audrey helped her best friend, 12-year-old Maggie Jones McGann, murder Maggie’s father, who had been molesting Maggie. After spending time in a juvenile correction facility, Audrey went on to earn a Ph.D. When Audrey returns to Edgeport, where she hasn’t been in seven years, for her mother’s birthday, she faces an angry sister, a mother who blames her for being involved in a murder, and a town where everyone views her as a danger. Her first night, she inadvertently meets Maggie, and they have a fight in public. When Maggie is found dead on the beach the next morning, Audrey is the obvious suspect. In her effort to prove her innocence, Audrey reconnects with Jake Tripp, her teenage love, who brings back all the confusing and ambivalent feelings from their past. The action builds to compelling and unexpected conclusion. [em](Apr.) [/em]