LOW PRESSURE

LOW PRESSURE by Sandra Brown was read for the 2013 Mammoth Book Challenge.

From the book jacket:

Bellamy Lyston was only twelve years old when her older sister, Susan, was killed on a stormy Memorial Day.  Bellamy's fear of storms is a legacy of the tornado that destroyed the crime scene along with her memory of what really happened during the day's most devastating moments.

Now, eighteen years later, Bellamy has written a sensational, bestselling novel based on Susan's murder.  Because the book was inspired by the tragic event that still pains her family, she published it under a pseudonym to protect them from unwanted publicity.  But when an opportunistic reporter discovers that the book is based on fact, Bellamy's identity is exposed along with the family scandal.

Moreover, Bellamy becomes the target of an unnamed assailant who either wants the truth about Susan's murder to remain unknown or, even more threatening, is determined to get vengeance for a man wrongfully accused and punished.

In order to identify her stalker, Bellamy must confront the ghosts of her past, including Dent Carter, Susan'w wayward and reckless boyfriend - and an original suspect in the murder case.  Dent, with this and other stains on his past, is intent on clearing his name, and he needs Bellamy's sealed memory to do it.  But her safeguarded recollections - once unlocked - pose new, unforeseen dangers.

As Bellamy delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Susan's slaying, she discovers disturbing elements of the crime that call into question the people she holds most dear.  Though haunted by partial memories and conflicted over her feelings for Dent, she won't stop until she reveals Susan's killer.  That is, unless the killer strikes first...

This was a whodunnit that kept me guessing until the end.  I knew who didn't do it, and I had a rough idea of who might have done it, but I was surprised when the killer's identity was revealed.  The family had a lot of secrets that caused much friction.  As Bellamy learned more about these secrets, she realized how little she really knew her sister.

My one beef about the book - the name Bellamy.  She's supposed to be thirty years old.  Who, thirty years ago, would name a daughter Bellamy?  Petty, but it bothered me.