There Was a Little Girl

E.J. Pugh is the first one to admit she's no Martha Stewart. What she is, is a sometime romance writer and an emotionally over-extended wife and mother. She's also a woman who can't walk away from trouble. In this fourth installment of her series (after Home Again, Home Again), E.J. jumps into a freezing Texas river to rescue a suicidal teen named Brenna. As young lives go, Brenna's is lousy and getting worse fast. Her mother, free after a nine-year term for the death of Brenna's baby brother, is hell-bent on hauling her daughter off to live with her abusive stepfather. But E.J.'s not about to let that happen. With the help of family counselor, Josh Morgan, a Herman Munster-type with a mega-watt smile and a troubled past, E.J. gives Brenna a fresh start. For the first time, things are looking up for Brenna...until her mother and stepfather are murdered and she becomes the prime suspect. Cooper, who spikes her first-person narrative with humor, witty wordplay and the occasional philosophical insight, produces not just a smart, fast-paced mystery, but a thoughtful, touching tale as well. (Mar.)