Alice LaPlante

Thirty-nine year old Jane O'Malley, after suffering the grievous loss of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Angela, moves to a cottage in Princeton-by-the Sea, not far from the scenic Half Moon Bay, a rustic retreat in northern California. Jane, who is an expert on plants indigenous to the state, works in a gardening center, "Smithson's Nursery," but for the most part keeps to herself. She has been in mourning for a little over a year, with no end in sight. When she has trouble sleeping—a regular occurrence--she takes long walks on the beach, often in the middle of the night. Suddenly, little girls begin to disappear and are later found dead. Their killer poses them carefully and applies makeup to their faces. When the police discover that Jane has no alibis for the dates and times of the abductions and, in addition, has been keeping major secrets about her past from becoming public knowledge, they begin to suspect her of harming the children.

A remarkably good-looking and poised couple moves into the area. Jane is drawn to them, and soon, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with theirs. Edward and Alma offer Jane comfort and affection, which she desperately needs, especially since Jane still has bitter memories of her harsh childhood. Her father was an alcoholic, and family members as well as sadistic classmates bullied her. Unfortunately, isolation and neediness have dulled Jane's judgment, and she fails to spot obvious signs of trouble ahead.

"Half Moon Bay," by Alice LaPlante, has little to recommend it, aside from the exhilarating descriptions of the windswept coast, towering waves, and beautiful plants that Jane lovingly tends to in the nursery. The flaws in this book include overwrought writing ("Inside the darkness is devouring her, cell by cell."); thinly developed characters; and irritatingly staccato sentence fragments that call attention to themselves ("The last year. The last vacation. Last things. So many last things."). The poorly constructed and predictable plot will make fans of elegantly-designed murder mysteries groan. Furthermore, Jane's warped personality is off-putting. She is so lacking in self-esteem that she repeatedly debases herself and takes insane risks. The author concludes the proceedings abruptly; it is almost as if she wants to part ways with her self-absorbed and reckless heroine as quickly as we do.… (more)