Virtue Falls

July 21, 2014
In the predictable first of a new suspense series, bestseller Dodd (Lady in Black) tracks West Coast turmoil of all sorts. For starters, a serial killer who delights in murdering young women and mutilating their children is loose in California. Meanwhile, an earthquake hits the town of Virtue Falls, Wash., with an attendant tsunami and aftershocks. The geologist on the scene, Elizabeth Banner, has crime in her background. Her father was put away decades ago for fatally stabbing her mother, Misty, with a pair of scissors. But did he? Papa Banner has always maintained his innocence, and odd similarities between Misty's death and the serial killer's m.o. raise the terrifying possibility that the Banner killer might still be at large. Steamy romance between Elizabeth and her ex, as well as charming minor characters, such as an amiable retired physician, help alleviate the tedium of this novel, whose conclusion one can see hundreds of pages before the end. 100,000 first printing. Agent: Mel Berger, William Morris Endeavor.

September 15, 2014
When geologist Elizabeth Banner returns to her hometown of Virtue Falls two decades after her father was convicted of murdering her mother, long-buried secrets will put her in the sights of a serial killer after an earthquake hits and uncovers them. Since the day her mother died, Elizabeth has turned toward science to make sense of the world, and she's returned to Virtue Falls as a renowned geologist to take up the intriguing work her father started before he was convicted of his wife's murder, studying "Pacific Rim tectonic plates and subduction zones." Nearly as soon as she gets there, a huge earthquake hits the area and puts her work front and center on a national scale. Unfortunately, it also devastates the community, and Elizabeth is honor-bound to check in on her ex-husband's unofficial foster mother, Margaret, an elderly resort owner who helped Garik survive an abusive childhood. Emotionally adrift since the end of his marriage, Garik has put his FBI career in jeopardy, but when he hears about the Virtue Falls earthquake, he speeds up the coast from Las Vegas to help Margaret, only to learn that Elizabeth is there, too. And when a gruesome discovery at Elizabeth's work site ties her mother's death to a recent series of murders, Garik puts his detective skills to work to solve the case, since it's becoming clear that Charles Banner is innocent and the killer is after Elizabeth. Romance star Dodd moves firmly into thriller territory, and a fascinating premise combined with a complex, layered plot, insightful characterization and agile storytelling make for a winning read. Intense and suspenseful, with touches of romance, humor and mysticism.

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July 1, 2014

With a smart, beautiful woman overly dedicated to her work and a broken FBI agent working to find a killer as main characters, Golden Heart and RITA award winner Dodd's latest novel hits just about every cliche in the romantic thriller genre. But it doesn't matter because the characters are flawed, three-dimensional, and compelling. And an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the coastal town of Virtue Falls is an unusual and tumultuous setting for a quickly ratcheting spiral of tension that fragments into murder. Elizabeth Banner is well known, but not for her brilliance in geology. Instead, she's recognized as the child who witnessed her father kill her mother. Her ex-husband, Garik Jacobsen, suspects that Charles Banner may be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted and that the killer is still at large. VERDICT A few secondary story lines seem extraneous and there is some occasionally overwrought dialog, but the red herrings galore and multiple third-person points of view will keep readers guessing whodunit right up to the end. For romantic suspense fans and those who enjoy tautly plotted page-turners. [See Prepub Alert, 3/17/14; 100,000-copy first printing.]--Charli Osborne, Oxford P.L., MI

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
Most sane people caught in an earthquake would be terrified; Elizabeth Banner is elated. After all, earthquakes are the sole reason Elizabeth has come back to Virtue Falls, after leaving her hometown 23 years earlier. Elizabeth hopes to build on the seminal geological studies her father, Charles, worked on up until the day he murdered Elizabeth's mother, Misty. So when a class-8 quake and the resulting tsunami hit the small coastal Washington town, Elizabeth immediately begins gathering the data she needs. The earthquake, however, has one more surprise in store for Elizabeth when her mother's body finally surfaces, and Elizabeth begins questioning what really happened all those years ago. Dodd slowly ratchets up the suspense level to the breaking point, while introducing readers to the diverse and quirky characters who live in the small town, and Virtue Falls' claustrophobic atmosphere adds to the menacing sense of danger. With this nail-biting book, RITA Awardwinning Dodd shifts the dial of her writing more to the suspense side, but the novel's sexy romantic core will still please her longtime fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

October 27, 2014
The first novel in Dodd’s new series focuses on Elizabeth Banner, a stunningly beautiful but emotionally blocked geologist who has returned to Virtue Falls, Wash., the oceanside town where, a couple of decades ago, at the age of four, she supposedly witnessed her brilliant scientist father murder her mother with a pair of scissors. Though the body was never found, Charles Banner was convicted and tossed into state prison. When a major earthquake followed by a tsunami hits, Elizabeth is elated to be the first geologist on the scene, but her mom’s corpse is disinterred by the quake. Then her FBI agent ex-husband, Garik, whom she still loves, arrives hunting for a serial murderer who uses scissors to kill mothers and their children. Reader Soler does well delivering dramatic dialogue, of which there is an abundance, what with the townspeople frantically reacting to the murders and the continuing aftershocks and their village being cut off from the rest of the world by the quake. She’s particularly effective in finding a lovable Irish brogue for Elizabeth’s tough but kindhearted mother-in-law. But her presumably natural girlish, almost chirpy voice is sometimes at odds with the material, particularly noticeable during sequences in which Dodd describes with graphic eloquence Elizabeth and Garik rolling about, rekindling their romantic passion. The production also includes a conversation between Dodd and romance-suspense writer Jayne Ann Krentz. A St. Martin’s hardcover.