HIGH WATER

Seven Marines are killed during a forced march at Parris Island, South Carolina. Fielding Smallwood, drill instructor, is cleared of responsibility but retires under a cloud of scandal. When, years later, he is murdered, his daughter Claire is arrested. Georgie Smallwood tries to clear her sister, remembering their father's "rages, moods and small cruelties." Georgie has always believed her father was somehow involved in her mother's mysterious death. Author Hightower is adept at unraveling small-town secrets; however, she burdens the story with too many subplots and plot twists to be believable. Gabrielle de Cuir gives an intelligent reading of this deeply tangled family web. Sadly, she often sounds listless, depressed, or overwhelmed by ennui, her performance weighed down by the psychological morass that Hightower has created. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]