Photographer Clare Porterfield returns to her hometown of Galveston, TX, after a number of years. Her marriage crumbling in the wake of her daughter's tragic death, Clare is seeking something she is unable to define. She finds herself in thrall to wealthy banker Will Carraday, whose longtime impact on her own family she's just beginning to realize, while trying to find resolution with Will's son Patrick, who was involved in an incident when they were teens that led to her leaving Galveston. VERDICT While Black's depiction of the culture and history of Galveston can come only from deep personal knowledge, the novel's structure is somewhat problematic; the main story thread is set in 1990 for no apparent reason, with no real sense or flavor of the time period. This reviewer guessed the book's big secret a full 100 pages earlier than Clare did, and thus was impatient with her until she figured it out. And first-time novelist Black falls victim to a rookie mistake, imposing an abrupt, unnecessary, somewhat implausible dramatic ending.—Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis