My Lost Daughter

Rosenberg's clunky women-in-jeopardy yarn features series heroine California Superior Court Judge Lily Forrester interrupting a sensational trial to rush to aid her daughter, a Stanford Law School student she fears has suffered a mental breakdown. She deposits the depressed girl at a private psychiatric hospital she finds in the phone book. Naturally, it turns out to be Patient Abuse Central. In a parallel plot, FBI Agent Mary Stevens searches for a serial killer who's slaying members of suicide clubs—and the two strands come together. Perhaps influenced by the author's florid fiction, including detailed sex scenes only a gynecologist could love, Coleen Marlo goes heavy on the melodrama. Judge Forrester is in an almost constant state of breathless panic, her daughter is a weepy mess, and her ex-husband sounds as if he's choking on venom. It's a pretty rough 14 hours for all concerned. A Forge hardcover. (Oct.)