Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Like LaPlante's 2011 Turn of Mind, this is an attempt to fuse a literary novel with a crime thriller and also like the earlier novel its success depends upon reader reaction to the blending of the two approaches. Jane O'Malley is a model for the dictum that whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. Her pleasant San Francisco life implodes when her daughter is killed and her husband abandons her. A move to a seaside village and a job at a greenhouse offer a chance at blessed ordinariness. But then the thriller plot comes to life. Children are being murdered, and the police are watching Jane. For good reason. That's when we learn of the crazy-mean things she did to the person who killed her daughter. So far, so good, but at this point, the novel gets lost in a sea of introspection. Readers are likely to long for a fresh killing as the examination of Jane's psychological state she's way depressed goes on and on and on. There is fine, thoughtful prose here, but it is never entirely in sync with the action around it.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A grieving, unstable mother who has lost her teenage daughter relocates to a small town on the coast of northern California in this brooding suspense novel.Jane O'Malley, whose daughter was killed the year before by a distracted driver and whose husband has left her, moves to Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, to try to make a new life for herself. A former biologist, she works at a plant nursery guiding customers in the use of native plants. In her spare hours, she walks deserted beaches late at night and considers drowning herself. When young girls from the area begin to disappear and then turn up dead a week later, Jane comes under suspicion. Deserted by some of her local friends and bored with others, she forms an increasingly desperate bond with an alluring new couple. Edward, an environmental activist with a taste for lawbreaking, is a "dark archangel" with "a face that would heal wounds." Alma, a physics professor, is his equal, gorgeous with eyes that are "a strange blue-green, very intense." Readers looking for a mystery with diverting twists and turns won't find them here. This is a classic story of a woman in jeopardy, with the heroine making one bad, though emotionally credible, decision after another. LaPlante (Coming of Age at the End of Days, 2015, etc.) anchors the plot, and Jane's mood swings and secrets, in a physically real and detailed world. The cozy little town, with its family coffee shop and popular pumpkin festival, is contrasted with the dark, starkly beautiful, and deserted midnight seaside, paralleling the alternation in Jane's mental states. Secondary characters drawn in swift, precise strokes, living their lives largely outside Jane's troubled trajectory, help make this a fully developed novel rather than simply a mood piece.In a book that's more acute psychological study than thriller, LaPlante uses a seductively dangerous landscape to mirror her heroine's inner life. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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In this well-crafted novel of psychological suspense from bestseller LaPlante (Coming of Age at the End of Days), 39-year-old Jane O'Malley moves from San Francisco to a village on the California coast near Half Moon Bay, where she works with plants at Smithson's Nursery in an effort to get over the death of her 16-year-old daughter, Angela, in a car accident and her divorce from husband Rick, which was a consequence of that tragedy. Then, five-year-old Heidi McCready disappears, and her body turns up carefully wrapped in a blanket left in a field eight days later. More children go missing, much to the consternation of the members of the little community. Jane feels empathy for the bereaved parents, but her erratic behavior causes the FBI to consider her a suspect. The seductive Edward Stanton, an environmental activist, and his beautiful companion, Alma Godwin, who happen to know about Jane's losses, challenge her to move beyond her pain as a surprising climax approaches. This complex character study will appeal as much to mainstream fiction readers as genre fans. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenburg Literary. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal
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Moving from Berkeley to Half Moon Bay, CA, was supposed to help Jane heal. But Angela, the teenage daughter Jane lost a year ago in a car accident, haunts her memories daily. Jane has managed to get a job at a local garden center but is only getting by. In addition to losing her only daughter, her marriage to Rick failed along the way as well. So when she meets newcomers Alma and Edward, Jane is in desperate need of friends. Edward is tall, dark, and handsome, and it isn't long before the three are more than friends. In addition to cobbling her life back together, Jane is now faced with more loss as young girls begin to go missing in town. Jane is suddenly under suspicion, as she can't come up with an alibi each time a girl disappears. Has her grief driven her to this end, taking girls to fill a hole in herself? VERDICT Despite the unlikable trio of characters, this latest psychological thriller from LaPlante (A Circle of Wives; Turn of Mind) is sure to satisfy the author's fans. [See Prepub Alert, 1/22/17.]-Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.