Southern Lights

A chilling story of crime and punishment mixed with a behind-closed-doors look into the heart of a family. Assistant D.A. and single mom Alexa Hamilton has just been handed the kind of case that makes careers: the trial of accused serial killer Luke Quentin. Sifting through mountains of forensic evidence, enduring Quentin's cold, suggestive stares in the courthouse, Alexa relentlessly builds her case and prepares for a high-stakes trial . . . until threatening letters throw her private life into turmoil. The letters are addressed to Alexa's beautiful 17-year-old daughter, Savannah, who Alexa has raised alone since her painful divorce years before. Alexa is certain that Quentin is behind the letters – and that they are too dangerous to ignore. Suddenly Alexa must make the toughest choice of all – and send her daughter back to the very place that Alexa swore she would never return: to her ex-husband's world of southern tradition, long memories, and the antebellum charm of Charleston. Eleven years had passed since Alexa left the South behind, fleeing the pain of her ex-husband's betrayal and the cold cruelty of his prominent Charleston family. Alexa's wounds are still fresh – but she knows she must put her own pain aside for Savannah's safety. Now, while Alexa's trial builds to a climax in New York, her daughter is settling into southern life, discovering a part of her family history she's never known – from the ice-cold beauty who stole her father away to a domineering matriarch and several half-brothers and sisters. As a family's wounds are exposed and the healing begins, Alexa and Savannah, after a season in different worlds, will come together again – strengthened by the trials they have faced, changed by the mysteries they have unraveled, armed with miracles that are uniquely their own. In this masterfully told tale, Danielle Steel creates a stunning array of contrasts – from the gritty chaos of Manhattan's criminal court system to the cool gentility