December 20, 2010
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.
July 26, 2010
In Rosenberg's entertaining if at times overheated fourth entry in her suspense series featuring Ventura County, Calif., judge Lily Forrester, a direct sequel to 2009's The Cheater, flashbacks allow readers unfamiliar with the previous book to easily follow the action. Several years earlier, Lily and her daughter, Shana, were raped and their attacker eluded capture. This and subsequent traumas have left Shana in a precarious emotional state. When Shana has a meltdown after her boyfriend dumps her, Lily picks Whitehall, a private psychiatric hospital outside San Francisco, out of a phone book. Without referrals or further investigation, Lily takes her daughter to Whitehall, where Shana voluntarily commits herself. Unfortunately, Whitehall is ruled by a rich, handsome inmate, who's a sociopathic killer, and a greedy doctor who'll do anything to land an insured patient. Meanwhile, Lily's friend FBI special agent Mary Stevens and her partner, Brooks East, investigate suicide clubs in a somewhat more plausible subplot.