2007-02-15 AN EAGERLY AWAITED SEQUEL

Here `tis - the eagerly awaited sequel to Lisa Unger's debut thriller "Beautiful Lies," and it's another corker. Protagonist Ridley Jones, whom we first met last year in "Beautiful Lies," had hoped to go on with a somewhat normal life - as normal as life can be for one whose face graced front pages after she saved the life of a toddler - but that is not to be, not even close.

We hear, "I bet you thought you'd heard the end of me. You might have at least hoped that I'd had my fill of drama for one lifetime and that the road ahead of me would not hold any more surprises, that things would go pretty smoothly from now on. Believe me, I thought so, too. We were both wrong."

Ridley's boyfriend, Jake, has moved out of the apartment they shared and the two of them have tried various ways to reconnect without a great deal of success. One might have thought a trip to Paris would do the trick! As if this breach in their relationship were not enough, Ridley has discovered that the man she thought of as Uncle Max is actually her biological father. Although Max is now dead, she's in the position of trying to "recast" her uncle as her father.

Max had played a pivotal part in the development of Project Rescue, an organization devoted to getting the Safe Haven Law passed in New York State. Under this law mothers are allowed to abandon their children at specified Safe Haven sites if their children are abused or the mothers fear they will be. As with so many thing there's an up side and a down side to Project Rescue. It seems that some doctors and nurses have been selecting certain children they think will be victims of abuse, then in cooperation with criminals abducting them and selling them to well-to-do parents. Myra Lyall, a reporter for the Times, was covering this story - until she was murdered.

Ridley has picked up some photos that she and Jake had taken recently - in Paris, in Central Park. The photos reveal more than she remembers - there's a murky figure in almost all of them. It's a familiar figure, one she identifies as Max. How could this be when he is dead?


- Gail Cooke