Someone Knows/Lisa Scottoline/387 pages

                                                          Someone Knows is a suspense novel that starts off very much
                                                     like your average young adult novel.  The first 200 pages tell the
                                                     story of five teens who are hanging out over the summer--all seem
                                                     typical but unique.  One is growing up in the shadow of her
                                                     terminally ill sister, another is wondering if he is gay, one is the
                                                     rich kid being ignored by her parents and raised by the hired help,
                                                     one is the new kid in town with a secret why they had to move. 
                                                     There is drinking, staying out late, voyeurism, and then a tragic
                                                     accident that changes their lives.
                                                          Part two starts twenty years later and our group is older but not
                                                     wiser.  While I very much enjoyed the start to this story, I found the
                                                     rest to be wandering, a lot of re-hashing of events and second
guessing.  The ending does a nice job of tying everything together for a satisfying finish but part two was only mildly interesting and at times very depressing.  I have not read Scottoline before and I'm not sure I'll hurry to read another.

Lights Out Tonight/Mary Jane Clark/340 pages

                       

      Lights Out Tonight is a lightweight suspense novel that has great characters, an intricate plot and enough twists in the story to keep everyone guessing.

     Caroline Enright is a new member of the KEY News staff.  Currently doing reviews of stage and screen performances, she is sent to interview Belinda Winthrop who gives another award winning performance before disappearing from her home with no obvious suspects for the police--but lots of suspects for the reader!  There is the totally obsessed and recluse portrait painter, the understudy for Winthrop's part, the ex-con groundskeeper dealing in drugs, the play's director who is over committed and fears losing the backing for his play and, even closer to home, Caroline's husband is acting strange whenever the unsolved death of a friend is brought up from a couple of years ago.  All seem suspicious and could be the killer!

     As always, Mary Jane Clark does a masterful job of taking all the story threads and weaving them into a fascinating mystery with an ending that most will not see coming.