In a very unusual start to a novel in the Whiskey Creek series, we meet Sophia DeBussi on her husband's luxury yacht off Rio. What has been an anniversary cruise with their daughter along, has turned to suspense as Skip has vanished along with his cellphone in the ocean. The crew saw nothing and the Brazilian police need to be called.

TAKE ME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS enlists our sympathy for bewildered Sophia, who drank to escape her jealous husband's violence and is just out of rehab, but can't mention any tensions in case she's suspected of misdeeds. Her savvy daughter Lexi may be young but she's already learnt to lose respect for a drunk, so Sophia is determined that she's not going down that route again. Then Skip's aide back in his business calls to say that the FBI have turned up at the office with a warrant, suspecting Skip of dodgy financial dealings. It may be white-collar crime, but the serious charges would ruin Skip's reputation in business - and in their home town of Whiskey Creek, where he's been administering investments. Could Sophia unwittingly have been living a lie?

Brenda Novak is such a good writer that I felt myself enjoying this tale right away, if saddened by the bitter truths emerging. California is a community property state, so all of Sophia's assets will be liable if her husband has incurred debts. She's dependent on her judgemental in-laws and guess what, Skip has been playing fast and loose with their investments too. Sophia worries more about Lexi than herself, but she has no independent advisor or job skills. Among the good shopkeepers and coffee drinkers of former mining town Whiskey Creek, we hear the opinion that Sophia was a self-centred girl at school. Noah Rackham, the bicycle shop owner we met in the previous book, hates admitting that he too was taken in by the expansive Skip. Only two people have any real sympathy for the abandoned little family; Eve Harmon and Ted Dixon, who remembers Sophia as the first girl he fell for at school.

Readers of the series to date will love the social jigsaw portrayed, but equally this book reads well as a standalone. By turns wryly amusing and suspenseful, TAKE ME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS is a complex tale touching on topics from school bullying to the deeply loving, perhaps the best of Brenda Novak's to date.