Stranger in Paradise

Doing what she does best, popular author Eileen Goudge has created the seemingly idyllic town of Carson Springs, along the golden coast of California near Santa Barbara. In Stranger in Paradise, the first novel in a new trilogy, the tranquil surface of Carson Springs unsuccessfully hides the murmurings of discontent; amid the gentle hum of the famous honeybee hives at the local convent, real problems exist. It's hard to believe that the wedding of Alice Kiley to her much older fiancé, Wes Carpenter, would presage the end of the comfortable existence of Alice's widowed mother, Sam, and her divorced older sister, Laura. But a dead car and a gatecrasher at the reception are only the beginning of the changes that will rock the Kiley family and the town of Carson Springs.

Sam catches a ride from the church back to the reception at her home with her new son-in-law's son, Ian Carpenter, the beach-boy-handsome artist, only to discover a hungry runaway girl named Finch stealing food. When Sam finds herself hotly pursued by a man young enough to be her son--her younger daughter's new stepson to boot--the temptation to say yes is just too great, and the encounter leaves Sam and Ian with a joint project in the making. Alice is horrified by her mother's actions, but her sister Laura is too busy trying to break through Finch's mistrust and heal her wounds to care. Sam, Alice, and Laura struggle against others' expectations of them and their own visions of each other. When a string of gruesome murders occurs, the darkness seething beneath Carson Springs' surface threatens to overwhelm the Kiley women and the men who love them. Goudge has produced another roller coaster of a read with Stranger in Paradise. Fasten your seat belts before you start this one! --Alison Trinkle