The still-unsolved murder of her 3-year-old sister Julie has haunted Anna Jameson's dreams since childhood. Tantalizing bits and pieces of that hurricane-tossed night tease her memory, but she's put it behind her and tried to move on with her life--unlike her parents, who left New York after the tragedy and still don't venture very far from their Charleston home. Now Anna has an opportunity to make her mark as a photographer in New York, and despite her mother's worry and warning, she takes it. Much of the first half of this somewhat slow-moving suspense story covers Anna's efforts to make a place for herself, professionally and personally. But then another perspective intrudes: that of a group of forensic psychologists, known collectively as the Arcanum, who study "cold" cases and try to close them, often years after the fact. The "Sleeping Beauty Murder," as the killing of little Julie Jameson is known, suddenly takes on new urgency when an anonymous someone with inside knowledge of those past events gets the experts involved again.

Despite the obvious parallels to the Jon Benet Ramsey case (including the suspicion that a family member killed the little girl), it's never made clear why a 30-year-old murder should still capture so much attention. The characterizations of the Arcanum members are so thin and one-dimensional that we don't care about them, except to note that author Judith Kelman seems to have a particular dislike of one of the experts she sketches, a media-hungry, spotlight-grabbing, and thoroughly unpleasant psychologist who's almost as awful as Anna's new boss, a tyrannical newspaper publisher. Kelman's written more than a dozen solid thrillers (Fly Away Home,, After the Fall, etc.), but this one seems slight and full of extraneous characters, intentionally misleading clues and McGuffins, and unfulfilled expectations. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
Set in a shadowy and sinister New York City, this taut and assured suspense thriller by Kelman (After the Fall, etc.) chronicles the rekindling of a long-dormant murder investigation and the return of a ruthless killer. Thirty years after her young sister's death, Anna Jameson is haunted by memories of what was dubbed the Sleeping Beauty Murder. On a stormy summer night, five-year-old Julie Jameson was killed in her bedroom while her family slept. Following this horror, her anguished parents fled Manhattan with three-year-old Anna and moved to South Carolina, where they never quite recovered from the shock. Fast-forward to Anna, now 33 and an aspiring photographer, who returns to New York to work as a photojournalist for a high-powered media conglomerate and to confront family demons. Armed with her camera, she becomes acclimated to the perils of the city: she captures a drug deal on film, escapes a would-be rapist and shoots a newspaper expos‚ of her neighborhood's prostitution ring. Meanwhile, Arcanum, an elite volunteer group of colorful forensic experts devoted to investigating unsolved homicides, receives an anonymous phone call from a woman who warns that Julie's killer may strike again. The group takes on the case privately, inevitably colliding with Anna in its researches. The body count rises as a spooky electrician, a fugitive serial killer, a heroic cop and assorted others cloud the picture. Swift pacing and well-drawn supplementary characters--like the bombastic media mogul Stewart Burlingame and Dixon Drake, a reporter who takes Anna under his wing--come together in this smooth page-turner that's sure to have fans reading into the wee hours of the night. Agent, Peter Lampack. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Mary Higgins Clark
Judith Kelman gets better all the time!


Midwest Book Review
A compelling novel of psychological suspense by an author of "thought-provoking, chilling tales.


Publishers Weekly
...[a] taut and assured suspense thriller...[a] smooth page-turner that's sure to have fans reading into the wee hours of the night.


Kirkus Reviews
Tough-minded, exceptionally well-written suspense...The breakneck pace never flags...


Book Description
Anna Jamieson was only three when her five-year-old sister, Julie, was murdered while her family slept through a tempestuous hurricane, one of many in a season that had been dubbed the Summer of Storms.

For thirty years, Anna has been haunted by mental pictures of that night-crude composites that remain grainy and indistinct. But now Anna has returned to New York City, the scene of this horrendous, unsolved crime, and events are about to unfold that will make her fuzzy memories all too frighteningly clear.

As her work as a photojournalist begins to expose the dark underside of the glittering city, Anna unwittingly crosses paths with a fiendishly clever killer. While her search for the truth races toward a chilling conclusion, she must distinguish between allies and enemies, and realize that, ultimately, there is no one to trust but herself.


About the Author
With more than two million copies of her books in print, Judith Kelman is a master of psychological suspense. Summer of Storms is her twelfth novel.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Judith Kelman's Summer of Storms is a briskly paced, sometimes silly, yet generally engrossing thriller concerning the long-ago slaying of young Julie Jameson in New York City. Three decades after the grisly murder horrified the nation (à la the JonBenét Ramsey case, many blame the Mr. and Mrs., but a killer has never been officially named), Julie's sister, the now thritysomething Anna, has grown into an attractive, extremely hot-tempered photojournalist wannabe (her current employer is a family photo studio) who agonizes over blurred memories from her sister's final night. Still living with her parents in Charleston, South Carolina (the family moved south shortly after the incident), Anna hopes to one day use her impressive eye for a more fulfilling purpose. When her socialite uncle offers her a chance to work in New York City for tempestuous media mogul Stewart Burlingame, Anna speeds off to the site of her sister's long-ago demise with little reservation. Big trouble undoubtedly awaits.

Interspersed with Anna's increasingly troubled, first-person account of big-city life, we follow the Arcanum, an exclusive society of crime specialists who use their formidable know-how to crack unsolved homicides; after the forensic psychologist of the group receives a mysterious and distressing phone call, several members of the team believe that Julie Jameson's killer has returned to cover his newly trodden tracks. As members of the team get closer to the truth, they -- as well as the generally oblivious Anna -- cross the killer's well-calculated path.

Kelman does a deft job ratcheting up the suspense; at several points I was definitely spooked, especially during the opening sequence and the revealing final pages. Kelman's cast is strong and engaging, especially the members of the Arcanum as they relate their fascinating clue-solving techniques (most notably the use of voice printing and linguistic analysis). While the killer's initial revelation wasn't a tremendous surprise, the revelation of his true identity did throw me, and another event at the novel's end left me quite disturbed (that's a good thing). Great for fans of Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson, Summer of Storms is a fun and compelling read. (Andrew LeCount)

ANNOTATION

Winner of the 2002 Mary Higgins Clark Award (an Edgar Allan Poe Award).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Anna Jamieson was only three when her five-year-old sister, Julie, was murdered while her family slept through a tempestuous hurricane, one of many in a season dubbed the Summer of Storms. For thirty years, Anna has been haunted by mental pictures of that night - crude composites that remain grainy and indistinct. But now she has returned to New York City, the scene of that horrendous, unsolved crime, and events are about to unfold that will make her fuzzy memories all too frighteningly clear." "As Anna's work as a photojournalist exposes the dark underside of the glittering city, she unwittingly crosses paths with a fiendishly clever killer. While her search for the truth races toward a chilling conclusion, she must distinguish between allies and enemies, and realize that, ultimately, there is no one to trust but herself."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Set in a shadowy and sinister New York City, this taut and assured suspense thriller by Kelman (After the Fall, etc.) chronicles the rekindling of a long-dormant murder investigation and the return of a ruthless killer. Thirty years after her young sister's death, Anna Jameson is haunted by memories of what was dubbed the Sleeping Beauty Murder. On a stormy summer night, five-year-old Julie Jameson was killed in her bedroom while her family slept. Following this horror, her anguished parents fled Manhattan with three-year-old Anna and moved to South Carolina, where they never quite recovered from the shock. Fast-forward to Anna, now 33 and an aspiring photographer, who returns to New York to work as a photojournalist for a high-powered media conglomerate and to confront family demons. Armed with her camera, she becomes acclimated to the perils of the city: she captures a drug deal on film, escapes a would-be rapist and shoots a newspaper expos of her neighborhood's prostitution ring. Meanwhile, Arcanum, an elite volunteer group of colorful forensic experts devoted to investigating unsolved homicides, receives an anonymous phone call from a woman who warns that Julie's killer may strike again. The group takes on the case privately, inevitably colliding with Anna in its researches. The body count rises as a spooky electrician, a fugitive serial killer, a heroic cop and assorted others cloud the picture. Swift pacing and well-drawn supplementary characters--like the bombastic media mogul Stewart Burlingame and Dixon Drake, a reporter who takes Anna under his wing--come together in this smooth page-turner that's sure to have fans reading into the wee hours of the night. Agent, Peter Lampack. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Anna Jamieson was only three when her five-year-old sister Julie was murdered, and all her life she's been haunted by indistinct memories of the horrific, still-unsolved crime she may have witnessed. Her many relatives had gathered for a party that night and were trapped by the arrival of a hurricane, an unusual event for metropolitan New York. Not until morning did anyone know that an intruder had come and gone, leaving behind a small, still corpse. Relatives in South Carolina helped the Jamiesons move to a new house in Charleston, but the family never got over the overwhelming grief, and Anna grew up troubled, afflicted by a sense of dread and what she came to know as survivor's guilt, even though she's now a successful portrait photographer When her uncle Eli pulls a few strings to land her a job with a newspaper conglomerate in New York, she accepts despite her parents' misgivings. Her hardboiled boss tells her to get cracking immediately and find a headline story to shoot, then introduces her to a likable reporter named Dixon, who shows her around and helps her find a Williamsburg loft. In a New York minute, she's following cops and detectives in pursuit of a particularly vicious serial killer. Forensic psychologist Ted Callendar fills her in on the gruesome details, aided by Dr. Clu Baldwin, a noted investigator at the Latham Forensics Laboratory. Certain similarities in the cases lead to a reopening of the files on her sister's long-ago murder, and Anna stumbles upon a web of family lies and malignant relationships. Past and present converge with dizzying speed as the killer gets careless-and closer to Anna. Her memories of Julie's slaying suddenly become terrifyinglyclear:now she knows she's meant to be next. Tough-minded, exceptionally well-written suspense from Kelman (After the Fall, 1999, etc.). The breakneck pace never flags, and the grittiness of New York settings and people is just right.