Missing Pieces

Therapist Kate Sinclair expertly deals with her Palm Beach clients, but her own family is flying apart. Her delusional half-sister Jo Lynn, who marries and divorces abusers, is now obsessed with Colin Friendly, an accused serial rapist-killer. Sara, Kate's wily and buxom daughter, escalates teen rebellion to new heights, seeking the unstable Jo Lynn for support, and Kate's husband of 24 years retreats into avoidance. When Robert, an old flame, turns up the heat by offering Kate her own therapy show on one of his radio stations, her prim assisted-living mother wigs out. Kate worries that if she keeps giving pieces of herself away, there won't be anything left. The suspense intensifies when Colin escapes from prison and threatens Sara. Best-selling author Fielding (Don't Cry Now, LJ 3/15/95) conjures up three-dimensional characters with fresh, rapier-like dialog. Although her spirited humor flags occasionally from credibility-straining exaggeration, devoted fans will gobble up the story and savor the tasty imagery: "sleep was curled around her voice, like a kitten in a basket."