Don’t Make a Sound

Fantasies of domination and revenge overwhelm this intense series launch from Ragan (the Jessie Cole novels). Sawyer Brooks, a 29-year-old newly promoted crime reporter for a Sacramento, Calif., newspaper, suffered a traumatic experience as a child. One night, while Sawyer’s parents were traveling on business, her two older sisters left the young teen alone in their house in River Rock. Just after their departure, the uncle who usually looked after the sisters while their parents were away showed up at the house and rented her to four men who sexually abused her. Ever since, Sawyer has had trouble trusting people, and she flinches when anyone touches her. Nevertheless, her hunger for justice leads her back to River Rock to investigate a teenage girl’s murder that reminds her of two unsolved killings from her youth. She’s horrified to discover that child molesters are lurking almost everywhere in River Rock. Meanwhile, back in Sacramento, five young women whose sexual attackers were insufficiently punished have formed a vigilante group to teach the men a lesson. Their plan goes awry with predictably bloody results. Readers should be prepared for overheated prose in line with the subject matter (“River Rock... reeks of death, abandonment, and abduction”). Those who like to see evil men get their just desserts will look forward to Sawyer’s further exploits. [em]Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (June) [/em]