Amazon.com Review
Calling Kate Wilhelm a born storyteller is like calling Frank Sinatra a born singer: it's necessary but not sufficient to explain the genius that lies just behind the apparent facility. Whether Wilhelm is writing her prizewinning science fiction, her best-of-the-bunch legal thrillers (such as 1997's Malice Prepense, which became For the Defense in paperback), or an emotionally charged psychological thriller such as The Good Children, Wilhelm instantly brings her characters to life and roots them in a landscape both familiar and formidable. What children haven't felt the terror of moving to a new home and a new school--that icy edge of not belonging that the four youngsters of Will and Lee McNair have been walking all their lives? Soon after the family moves into the Oregon house that Will promised would be their permanent home, he is killed in an accident, and the children have to cope with a series of life disturbances that strongly resemble the constant disasters faced (and overcome) by the original settlers of Oregon's rougher terrains. Wilhelm adds modern touches of paranoia and political correctness to produce a story and characters that you'll have trouble forgetting.