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From Publishers Weekly The old adage, ''You can't go home again,'' doesn't apply to Cypress Springs, La., a picaresque little town that goes to extreme-and sometimes deadly-lengths to keep the outside world and its corrupting influences at bay. The town's outward calm provides an eerie counterpoint to the struggle occurring beneath the surface, which makes it the perfect setting for Spindler's latest thriller (after Dead Run). When investigative reporter Avery Chauvin returns to Cypress Springs to put her father's affairs in order after his apparent suicide, she takes comfort in the familiar attentions of her high school sweetheart, Matt Stevens, and his loving family, who treat her as one of their own. It soon becomes apparent, however, that things aren't as they seem. For starters, the Stevens clan seems uneasy, particularly when she mentions Hunter, Matt's fraternal twin. Then she receives a call that leads her to suspect that her dad was murdered. Her fears are sharpened when a local woman turns up dead, and ''outsider'' Gwen Lancaster tells Avery about her brother's disappearance. Despite the overwhelming evidence, Avery's investigative instincts take a while to kick in, but once they do, she uncovers clues indicating that a vigilante group has taken it upon itself to police and punish the town's citizens. Most disturbing is the fact that Hunter, with whom Avery becomes romantically involved, fits the killer's profile. While smoothly written, the book's absurdly macabre (and somewhat implausible) denouement will disappoint. Still, once readers get past the sluggish first half, they'll be chilled by the town's creepy Big Brother rhetoric and pulled inexorably onward by the question of whodunit. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review ''Readers will be pulled inexorably onward by the question of whodunit.'' -- Publishers Weekly Erica Spindler ''skillfully takes her readers into the subtle areas of crime scenes.'' -- Yong-Myun Rho, M.D., consultant in forensic medicine Journalist Avery Chauvin is devastated when she receives word of her father's suicide. How could her father, a dedicated physician, have taken his own life? That he set himself on fire is unfathomable.Returning to her hometown of Cypress Springs, Louisiana, Avery desperately searches for answers. Instead she hears whispered rumors of strange happenings, of neighbors who go missing in the night. She discovers a box of old newspaper articles in her father's house, all covering the horrific murder of a local woman. Why had her father kept them?Then the past and present collide. A woman is found brutally slain. An outsider passing through town vanishes. And Avery begins to wonder, could her father have been the victim of foul play?As each step closer to the truth exposes yet another layer of deceit, Avery must face the fact that in this peaceful Southern town a terrible evil resides, protected--until now--by the power of silence. New York Times Bestselling author When journalist Avery Chauvin returns home to Cypress springs, Louisiana, after twelve years, it's as if time has stood still. Yet for her everything has changed -- her mother died a year ago and now her father is gone. As Avery begins the heartbreaking task of cleaning out her parents' home, she discovers a box of fifteen-year-old newspaper articles covering the same event -- the brutal murder of a young woman in Cypress springs. Why, she wonders, did her father keep the clippings? Journalist Avery Chauvin, returning home to Louisiana after twelve years, determines to get to the truth of a long-ago murder and to discover how it is linked to her father Avery Chauvin returns home to Louisiana after 12 years. Her father and mother had both passed away and she found news clippings about murder