All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
Description
Until recently, Dr. Julia Cates was one of the preeminent child psychiatrists in the country, but a scandal shattered her confidence, ruined her career, and made her a media target. When she gets a desperate call from her estranged sister, Ellie, a police chief in their small western Washington hometown, she jumps at the chance to escape.
In Rain Valley, nothing much ever happens?until a girl emerges from the deep woods and walks into town. She is a victim unlike any Julia has ever seen: a child locked in a world of unimaginable fear and isolation.
When word spreads of the "wild child" and the infamous doctor who is treating her, the media descend on Julia and once again her competence is challenged. State and federal authorities want to lock the girl away in an institution until an identification can be made.
But to Julia, who has come to doubt her own ability, nothing is more important than saving the girl she now calls Alice. To heal this child, Julia will have to understand that she cannot work alone and must look to others?the people in the town she left long ago, the sister she barely knows, and Dr. Max Cerrasin, a handsome, private man with secrets of his own.
Then a shocking revelation forces Julia to risk everything to discover the truth about Alice. The ordeal that follows will test the limits of Julia's faith, forgiveness, and love, as she struggles to ascertain where Alice ultimately belongs.
Suzanne Toren's versatile narration enhances this complex story of a feral child and the people who try to help her. She portrays Dr. Julia Cates, a psychiatrist with a stain on her career, in a calm, soothing voice. She depicts Julia's sister, Ellie, who is police chief for Rain Valley, their childhood hometown, with a bright, sometimes edgy voice. Her portrayal of the wild child driven into Rain Valley by hunger is stellar. When Ellie asks her sister for help, Toren uses a variety of vocal inflections to portray Dr. Cates's growing relationship with the child. Soft music breaks end each CD. This unusual story is hard to turn off. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Kristin Hannah is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels. She lives on islands in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii with her husband and son.
