On Tall Pine Lake

Garlock's 50th novel is a delightful treasure set in seemingly tranquil Home, Ark., in 1980. Nona Conrad has moved her 14-year-old sister, Maggie, and her friend Mabel Rogers to Tall Pine Lake to spend the summer managing an isolated lakeside fishing camp. But as soon as sexy Simon Wright arrives and announces he's purchased the run-down camp, the sleepy outpost becomes a hotbed of thievery, kidnapping and murder. Chicago-based thugs Frank and Webb descend on the camp to retrieve a mysterious package that Nona's wayward brother mailed to her, bringing with them an overdose of violent mayhem. The husband of pregnant camper LeAnn Leasure ends up dead in the lake, two characters are kidnapped (separately), beatings are rampant and two other characters take a dirt-nap as the narrative builds to an edge-of-your-easy-chair thriller that romantic suspense junkies will not want to pass up. (Jan.)