Bone Music: A Burning Girl Novel

Charlotte Rowe, the harried heroine of this ambitious paranormal thriller and series launch from Rice (The Heavens Rise), used to be Trina Pierce. When she was nine months old, she was abducted by serial killers Daniel and Abigail Banning, who killed her mother. The Bannings raised Trina as their own until, after seven years, they were apprehended. Trina was sent to live with her father, who exploited her by profiting from movies based on her ordeal that portray her as a killer. Trina eventually escaped her father and established a new identity. She now lives in a remote house outside Scarlet, Ariz., with massive security, fearful of stalkers. Meanwhile, her psychiatrist, keen to use her for research, tricks her into taking a drug that gives her superhuman strength. How Charlotte uses these powers and what she does to try to prove that she isn’t evil keep the pages turning. Rice makes the most of an interesting conceit, but he could have done so just as effectively at shorter length. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit. (Mar.)