Cast into Doubt

MacDonald (From Cradle to Grave) offers a fresh, suspenseful spin on the vacation gone bad crime tale. Shelby Sloan, a well-to-do Philadelphia working woman, gives her daughter, Chloe Kenricks, and Chloe's husband, Rob, a Christmas treat—a Caribbean cruise to make up for the honeymoon the couple never had. Shelby even offers to care for their four-year-old son, Jeremy, while they're gone. Then Shelby receives a disturbing call from Rob, who tells her Chloe has fallen overboard and is missing off St. Thomas. Apparently, Chloe had been drinking. Shelby, unwilling to accept that Chloe had a drinking problem like Estelle Winter, Shelby's dying alcoholic mother, is sure that her daughter met with foul play. Shelby has further cause for alarm when Bud Ridley, a fellow Philly resident who saw Chloe the fateful night, kills himself after she questions him. The author nimbly reveals links to other murders—and to someone desperate to keep a secret. Fans of early Mary Higgins Clark will be rewarded. (Mar.)