The Drowning Girls

The Palms at Altamont Ridge, the exclusive gated California community that serves as the setting for this captivating novel from DeBoard (The Fragile World), becomes the home of the middle-class McGinnis family when husband Phil is hired as the community relations specialist. At the local high school, 14-year-old Danielle McGinnis makes a new friend, troubled sophomore Kelsey Jorgensen, who begins a flirtation with Phil that grows more insistent each time he rejects her. Kelsey uses every trick in the book, including rumors and threats, to sow doubt and discord between Phil and his wife, Liz, a high school counselor. Approaching the problem from totally different perspectives, mildly ambitious Phil and down-to-earth Liz each try to resolve the situation. This tale of a family in peril closes with a death that’s tragic and unexpected. [em]Agent: Melissa Flashman, Trident Media Group. (May) [/em]