Danielle Steel's newest book entitled SOUTHERN LIGHTS is the story New York City ADA, Alexa Hamilton. Alexa is feeling a bit like her skills aren't being used to their fullest potential as she prosecutes one mediocre crime after another, when she's called into the bosses office, and handed a once in a life time case...the prosecution of an accused serial killer Luke Quentin.
As the evidence starts piling up on Luke and more states are sble to tie their unsolved murders to him, the FBI wants to be involved. There's a chance they'll take the case and prosecute themselves, but Alexa fights to be able to keep it in New York, and to be the one to handle it regardless of the possible toll it will take on her.
The one thing Alexa is not expecting is that even though he's in jail and can't truly get to her Luke begins to threaten her daughter Savannah. Alexa sees only one choice, and that is to get Savannah out of town where Luke can't use his outside contacts to reach her.
Now, the story changes as Savannah and Alexa who have an unusually close relationship must learn to depend on the father and ex husband that neither truly know for Savannah's safety. While we as readers still know what is happening with the trial we also get an insiders view of a developing family relationship that has lain dormant for years.
Overall SOUTHERN LIGHTS by Danielle Steel had a different feel than previous titles that I've read because of the serial killer subplot and the details that provided. I used to be a big fan of Ms. Steels and over the years my enthusiasm has waned. While I enjoyed this book I did feel as though it could have been told in less pages and been just as enjoyable.
Danielle Steel sweeps us from a Manhattan courtroom to
the Deep South in her powerful new novel at once a
behind-closed-doors look into the heart of a family and a
tale of crime and punishment.Eleven years
have passed since Alexa Hamilton left the South behind,
fleeing the pain of her ex-husband's betrayal and the
cruelty of his prominent Charleston family. Now an assistant
D.A. in Manhattan, Alexa has finally put her demons to rest,
making a name for herself as a top prosecutor, handling the
city's toughest cases while juggling her role as devoted
single mom to a teenage daughter. But everything
changes when Alexa is handed her latest case: the trial of
accused serial killer Luke Quentin. Sifting through
mountains of forensic evidence, Alexa prepares for a
high-stakes trial until threatening letters throw her
private life into turmoil. The letters are addressed to her
beautiful seventeen-year-old daughter, Savannah, whom Alexa
has been raising alone since her divorce. Alexa is certain
that Quentin is behind the letters and that they are too
dangerous to ignore. Suddenly she must make the toughest
choice of all and send her daughter back to the very place
she swore she would never return to: the place where her
marriage ended in heartbreak her ex-husband's world of
southern tradition, memories of betrayal, and the antebellum
charm of Charleston.Now, while Alexa's trial builds
to a climax in New York, her daughter is settling into
southern life, discovering a part of her family history and
a father she barely knows--from the ice-cold stepmother who
stole him away to a fascinating ancestry and a half-sister
and half-brothers she comes to love. As secrets are exposed
and old wounds are healed, Alexa and Savannah, after a
season in different worlds, will come together again
strengthened by the challenges they have faced, changed by
the mysteries they have unraveled, and with Savannah now at
home in the southern world her mother fled.In this
masterfully told tale, Danielle Steel creates a stunning
array of contrasts: from the gritty chaos of Manhattan's
criminal court system to the seductive gentility of the
South, from the rage of a hardened criminal to the tender
bond between a mother and daughter and a loving father who
has welcomed Savannah home at last. A novel that will catch
you off guard at every turn, Southern Lights is
Danielle Steel at her electrifying best.
No excerpt available.
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