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Dark Water
by Sharon Sala
Mira
November 2002
Contemporary
Ten-year-old Sarah Jane Whitman and her mother were vilified by the people
of Marmet Maine when her father disappeared. The town believed that he
embezzled a million dollars from the bank and took off. It bothered her
mother so much that she slid into a depression and committed suicide.
Sarah was taken away from Marmet by her mother's good friend Lorett
Boudreaux and raised in New Orleans. Now, twenty years later, the police
inform her that her father's body has been found, in a trunk, at the
bottom of Lake Flagstaff. When she leaves her home in New Orleans, where
she also has a successful restaurant, she wants nothing more than to just
bury the remains and return home. On the way, she decides that she also
wants her father's name cleared.
When Tony DeMarco hears the news of the find, he feels he must return to
Marmet as well. He thinks he owes Sarah's father, Franklin Whitman, a huge
debt. Whitman was the only one who believed in him when he was sixteen and
wanted to start his own business. Not only did Whitman grant Tony a loan
to start his landscaping business but also he was Tony's first customer,
which is where he met Sarah Jane. If he can do anything to help he will.
He has always felt guilty that he didn't do anything to help Sarah and her
mother back then. Maybe he can do something now.
After he rescues Sarah from a pack of reporters, he invites her to stay at
his lakeside home for the duration of her stay. Sarah makes if very plain
to the people of the town that she intends to clear her father's name and
she is fully aware that, in her efforts to do so, she will flush out a
killer. Tony is right there to protect her, although she feels she doesn't
need his protection.
Sharon Sala has penned another masterpiece of romantic suspense. The story
is a page-turner from start to finish. The characters, including the
secondary ones, are three dimensional and believable, from the first page.
Even the lake becomes a character. It is such a compelling story that the
characters and the story stayed in my mind a long time after I finished
the book. In her quest for closure Sarah learns that vengeance is a "dish
best eaten cold" and she learns to walk away from the past. She also
learns to trust. Tony is the best kind of hero, romantic, gentle and
courageous and he learns that he can truly love. The villain of the piece
is a complete surprise. DARK WATER is a must buy, as are all of Ms. Sala's
and her alter ego Dinah McCall.
Review by Beth Coogen
Elizabeth_Coogan@brown.edu
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