Best of
Young-Adult-Contemporary

2001

Silent Truths


Susan Lewis - 2001
    Secrets can be deadly...When journalist Laurie Forbes turns up on Beth Ashby's doorstep, minutes after Beth's husband, political high-flier Colin Ashby, has been arrested for murder, neither can even begin to guess the shocking repercussions that have just been triggered in both their lives.Beth attempts to escape from her shattered life by throwing herself into the kind of reckless high-living that seems destined for disaster, while Laurie finds herself being threatened, terrorised and even taken prisoner for what she knows.As the dangerous truth draws closer, Laurie realises that if she is to save Beth from those already preparing to destroy her, she must put her trust in hated rival journalist Elliot Russell and face up to a ghost from the past.Silent Truths takes us on a compelling journey along the dark, decadent halls of power, to the glittering shores of seduction and intrigue, and finally to the terrifying truths behind the silence.

The River Folk


Margaret Dickinson - 2001
    The pretty daughter of a wife-beating drunk, it is no surprise that she has grown up afraid of her own shadow. That is until 'Battling Bessie Ruddick' takes the young girl under her wing and into the heart of her bustling family.Growing into an attractive young woman, Mary Ann yearns to be loved and when her affection for Bessie's son, Dan, is finally returned she becomes a skipper's wife. But the arduous life aboard ship is clearly not for her and only the arrival of a daughter, Lizzie, seems to hold the marriage together. Yet, tragically, the family is torn apart when Mary Ann is seduced by the promise of a happier life.Although bewildered by her mother's disappearance, it is now up to Lizzie to help her father. For she, unlike Mary Ann, has inherited Dan's love of the river. But then, disturbingly, her life starts to follow the same pattern as her mother's . . .

The Dream Where the Losers Go


Beth Goobie - 2001
    After five long months in treatment for self-destructive behavior, Skey continues to dream of dark tunnels with mysterious designs carved into their stone walls, a place where she is safe and alone. Then she encounters another dreamer, a boy her own age, dreaming the same dream, wandering the same tunnels. A boy with secrets much like her own.While trying desperately to remember what happened that sent her away and who the boy is that she met in the dream tunnels, Skey's life plummets farther out of control. When she realizes her friends do not have her best interests at heart and they may be the reason she is lost, Skey must face her fears and the truth of the dream tunnels, and find her way back to solid reality.