When she meets her new neighbor, Susan Rourke, she senses that the woman with a hesitant manner and a bruised face is hiding from something, or from someone, but she doesn't pry. Perhaps that explains why Zoe feels such a sense of personal responsibility when a visit to Susan's home finds the small trailer ransacked, with no sign of Susan other than a pair of bloody handprints on the window.

The search for Susan soon turns into a search for her estranged husband, Patrick Rourke, an angry man well known to the police officers who answered the domestic violence calls. As volunteers search the woods in two counties, Zoe chastises herself for not offering Susan the help she had so desperately needed. The search eventually yields a body, but the victim is Susan's husband, killed from a shotgun blast, and the police are now searching for Susan as a suspect.

Zoe doesn't know what to think. Did Susan finally turn on her abuser, killing him to save herself? And how could anyone blame her if she did? Zoe is determined to find Susan and help her if she can, but her questions uncover a world of secrets in this quiet community whose greatest claim to fame is an inn, or ordinary, reputed to be a stop in the Underground Railroad.

This is a haunting story with a subject matter that could have been gleaned from newspaper headlines. The locale adds to the feeling of atmosphere, with the isolated rural community the home of intrigue and mystery lurking just beneath the placid surface. The connection between the slaves escaping along the Underground Railroad and the women fleeing abusive men is perhaps a bit heavily underlined, but it works all the same. This is, without doubt, a book with an issue, but it is also a good read. The tone does not descend into preachiness and the passion for justice, for making things "right," is appealing.

--Jeri Wright