A woman discovers that her husband has gone back to his drinking and cheating... while a vicious killer is on the loose, in this tale set in Florida.

In BROKEN PROMISES Clare and Jim lose their house in Ohio and move with their young daughter to Florida where they find work. However Jim is quickly back on the drink he'd told Clare he'd forsworn, and with this comes reckless behaviour. It's not enough that he loses his licence for driving under the influence, he's got fines to pay, he's staying out nights, is occasionally violent and lies to his wife, who puts up with this abusive behaviour for no reason I can see. Yes, Jim's income helps pay the rent, but he costs far more than he earns and he doesn't keep any job for long. When Clare loses her job she opens a cleaning business and soon has many clients, in many ways the total opposite of her husband. They have nothing in common.

A young woman is murdered and Jim, with his philandering ways, is implicated, but Clare can't believe the worst about him and turns to a church where she gets encouraged to join a support group for families of drinkers. Next Jim gets a tax rebate and instead of paying bills or saving decides to start payments on a motorbike. Just when Clare thinks she's had it with him, and starts saving up to leave, matters take a turn for even worse.

BROKEN PROMISES is a first adult novel from Donna Zadunajsky, who has written children's books. I did not identify with the characters or their situations, but perhaps it could help some readers to see their own lives more clearly, just as Clare saw her own situation in a list of symptoms of codependency. The message of getting help from a support group, especially when Clare was away from her own family, was positive for people in many circumstances. The crime element does not enter the book for some time, so mainly it is a story of a miserable marriage. Not the most cheerful of reads, and I hope the author will add more adventure on her next outing.