Forgive Me

High school student Nadine Jessup, the heroine of this derivative thriller from Palmer (Desperate), lives with her divorced, alcoholic mother, Carolyn, in Potomac, Md. Tired of taking care of Carolyn and certain that neither of her parents wants her, Nadine takes off for Union Station in Washington, D.C., where she's targeted by a predator. The naive teen believes the man's pitch that he runs an entertainment agency and that she has the look he's been searching for. A month later, a distraught Carolyn calls on Virginia PI Angie DeRose, who specializes in missing person cases. Angie searches for Nadine, but after Angie's mother's sudden death, the investigator finds herself increasingly distracted by her own family concerns. Frequent excerpts from Nadine's diary, which detail her terrible fate as she's forced into a life of sexual slavery, fail to convince. Palmer has displayed more ingenuity at plotting and created more sympathetic and complex characters in his other books. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (June)