Relative Silence

Beautiful Piper Boone, the narrator of this well-executed tale of remorse and redemption from Parks (Fragments of Fear), is haunted by the memory of her five-year-old daughter’s death 15 years earlier in a boating related tragedy off South Carolina’s Curlew Island, the Boone family’s private retreat, where Piper has been living quietly since going through a divorce and losing her job. One day, Piper is eating at a café in Marion Inlet, S.C., when a gunman opens fire and kills three women. Piper is unhurt, thanks to handsome forensic artist Tucker Landry, who secretly bears his own numbing burden of guilt. With assistance from Piper, Tucker attempts to sketch a portrait of the shooter, who escaped the scene. As the two fall in love, they realize that Piper might have been the gunman’s real target. Meanwhile, members of the Boone family have been dying or disappearing at a suspicious rate. The action builds to a climactic, slam-bang fight with the killer as a hurricane sweeps the island. Those with a taste for modern gothic family sagas will be amply rewarded. Agent: Karen Solem, Spencerhill Assoc. (July)