Grenelle

Grenelle's setting is a southern religious college campus in the 1970s. Susan Grenelle has reluctantly assumed the guardianship of her late sister's daughter Samantha. Their growing relationship is strained by weird college happenings: vandalsim, theft of a relic, the tragic death of a young boy. Holland creates complex, believable characters. Susan is wary of trust, the only man she loved jilted her to marry her twin sister, and was himself jilted on his wedding day. Susan's niece is too self-contained a little girl. As campus activism,liberals versus conservatives, gives way to murder, kidnapping, and threats of more violence Susan has to confront past family demons, her faithless fiance who wants her back, and questions of forgivenss and trust. Definitely one of Holland's best plotted and written thrillers- a heroine who admits she is scared but confronts evil and displays a surprising resourcefulness