Cameron MacDonald has spent his life guided by duty. As the police chief of a small Massachusetts town that has been home to generations of his Scottish clan, he is bound to the town's residents by blood and honor. Yet when his cousin Jamie arrives at the police station with the body of his wife and the bald confession that he's killed her, Cam immediately places him under arrest. The situation isn't as clear to Cam's wife, Allie. While she is devoted to her husband, she finds herself siding against Cam, seduced by the picture James paints of a man so in love with a woman that he'd grant all her wishes! even the one that meant taking her life. Into this charged atmosphere drifts Mia, a new assistant at Allie's floral shop, for whom Cam feels an instant and inexplicable attraction. While he aids the prosecution in preparing the case against Jamie, who killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy, Cam finds himself betraying his own wife.

2008-05-08 Worth reading but only once.

Having read all of Picoult's other books, I can safely say that this is the only one that did not stick in my head. Unlike my personal favourites 'My Sister's Keeper', 'Nineteen Minutes' and 'Salem Falls', this book seemed to lack substance. This remains the only Picoult's book I have never been tempted to reread, which, as a vociferous reader and Diehard Picoult fan is hardly a recommendation. This being said, Picoult's sensitive and thought-provoking writing-style is still evident and saves a frankly quite poor story from becoming entirely boring through sheer eloquence.