Susan Hayes rushed to work leaving behind her briefing papers. Nearing her lunchtime, Susan races home to pick up her papers. However, instead of the silence of no one being home, she hears her husband attorney Tom making love to someone. Susan sees him with a twenty-three-year-old bimbo named Karen whose age is closer to that of their fourteen-year old daughter Beth. A stunned Susan gives Tom an ultimatum, but he shocks her further when he chooses to leave.

Susan turns to attorney Michelle Stoney for help in her divorce case. While visiting her sister Maggie on SULLIVAN ISLAND off the Carolina coast, Susan mentions that she plans to learn the truth as to what happened to their Dad, Big Hank, who died many years ago. Officially, he suffered a fatal heart attack, but Susan believes the Ku Klux Klan killed him. As she works to straighten out her personal life, Susan opens up a mystery that many people want to remain closed.

SULLIVAN ISLAND is an interesting tale that centers on a middle age woman reclaiming her body and soul. Susan is a wonderful character and the support cast allows the audience to see life on a Carolina barrier island as well as the inner Susan. The mystery of Big Hank's death adds an element of intrigue that spices up the tale. Dorothea Benton Frank has written an entertaining contemporary mystery that is fun to read.

Harriet Klausner