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Save Me by Lisa Scottoline.*

About a month ago on Crime Fiction Collective, I wrote a review of two books that shared the theme of bullying.   More recently, I read Lisa Scottoline's latest book and wished I could have included it in that review.

Rose McKenna's eight-year-old daughter Melly was born with a facial birthmark, a wine-colored blotch on her left cheek.  They've already had to move once because of the way Melly was treated at school.  When she tells her mother that it's happening again, Rose volunteers in the school cafeteria to keep an eye on her.  

When she sees her classmate Amanda putting jelly on her face in mockery of the birthmark, Melly runs to the girls' room to hide.  Rose begins to chastise Amanda, but is interrupted by an explosion which knocks her momentarily unconscious.  When she comes to, she leads Amanda and her two friends to the exit before turning back to find Melly.

Rose does get her daughter out of the building, but then learns that Amanda isn't with the other girls, having apparently gone back inside for something.  Melly is taken to the hospital, treated for smoke inhalation and sent home a few days later. Amanda remains unconscious for some time.

Amanda's mother and many of the other locals blame Rose for not making sure that Amanda was out before she went back for her own daughter, and Rose learns how ostracized Melly has felt all her life.  Rose decides that the only way to fix the situation is to figure out what caused the explosion and track the resulting events, a decision that causes her to realize who she is and what she's really capable of.

Unlike the heroines of the Rosato and Associates series,  the protagonist of this stand-alone is not a lawyer (though her husband is), but an ex-model, so her investigative skills are definitely those of an amateur.  But she somehow manages to ask the right questions of the right people in her quest to find out what really happened. 

This is a quick read, with cliff-hanger chapter endings that keep the reader hooked.  The ending is perhaps a little pat, but essentially satisfying.

*FTC Full Disclosure: I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Recently received

Save Me by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin's Press,12 April 2011).
Rose McKenna volunteers as a lunch mom in her daughter Melly’s school in order to keep an eye on Amanda, a mean girl who’s been bullying her daughter. Her fears come true when the bullying begins, sending Melly to the bathroom in tears. Just as Rose is about to follow after her daughter, a massive explosion goes off in the kitchen, sending the room into chaos. Rose finds herself faced with the horrifying decision of whether or not to run to the bathroom to rescue her daughter or usher Amanda to safety. She believes she has accomplished both, only to discover that Amanda, for an unknown reason, ran back into the school once out of Rose's sight. In an instance, Rose goes from hero to villain as the small community blames Amanda’s injuries on her.

Murder on Sisters' Row (Gaslight Mystery #13) by Victoria Thompson (Berkley Prime Crime hc, 7 June 2011).
With the help of a charitable lady of means, midwife Sarah Brandt rescues a young woman and her newborn from the brothel where the mother was forced to prostitute herself. But their success comes at a high price when their benefactor is found murdered.
Though the brothel's madam is immediately considered a suspect, Sarah and Sergeant Frank Malloy investigate, uncovering some unpleasant truths about the victim and her charity -- and the woman and child Sarah risked her own life to save.

Unraveled (Knitting Mystery #9) by Maggie Sefton (Berkley Prime Crime hc, 7 June 2011).
Spring is in the air of Fort Connor, Colorado-a time of new beginnings for the House of Lambspun knitters. But for fellow knitter Jennifer's new real estate client, it is his end. He's been murdered and Kelly Flynn is left unraveling a tangle of clues. This may prove to be her most challenging project yet.

Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington (Viking/Pamela Dorman, 2 June 2011).
When Alice Bliss learns that her father, Matt, is being deployed to Iraq, she's heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind.
Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full-blown teenager. Alice will learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and take care of her precocious little sister, Ellie. But the smell of Matt is starting to fade from his blue shirt that Alice wears everyday, and the phone calls are never long enough.