Product Description

Eleven years have passed since Alexa Hamilton left the South behind, fleeing the pain of her ex-husband’s betrayal and the cruelty of his prominent Charleston family. Now an assistant D.A. in Manhattan, Alexa has made a name for herself as a top prosecutor while juggling her role as devoted single mom to a teenage daughter.

But everything changes when Alexa is handed her latest case: the trial of accused serial killer Luke Quentin. Alexa prepares for a high-stakes trial . . . until threatening letters are addressed to her beautiful seventeen-year-old daughter, Savannah. Alexa is certain that Quentin is behind the letters — and that they are too dangerous to ignore. Suddenly she must make the toughest choice of all — and send her daughter back to the very place she swore she would never return to: the place where her marriage ended in heartbreak . . . her ex-husband’s world of southern tradition, memories of betrayal, and the antebellum charm of Charleston.

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 and a father she barely knows. As secrets are exposed and old wounds are healed, Alexa and Savannah, after a season in different worlds, will come together again — strengthened by the challenges they have faced, and with Savannah now at home in the southern world her mother fled.

A novel that will catch you off guard at every turn, Southern Lights is Danielle Steel at her electrifying best.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #510593 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-20
• Released on: 2009-10-20
• Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 8
• Binding: Audio CD

Features

• ISBN13: 9781423320708
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

From Publishers Weekly
A veteran of exploring wealthy family dynamics, Steel now flirts with the thriller, introducing two familiar fixtures, the serial killer and the strong single female attorney determined to get him convicted. Unfortunately, her focus quickly shifts away from New York ADA Alexa Hamilton and her conflict with rapist-murderer Luke Quentin to Alexa's 17-year-old daughter, Savannah, and her relationship with her father, Tom Beaumont, who broke Alexa's heart when he divorced her to remarry his first wife. After Savannah begins receiving threatening letters sent from Luke or an associate, Alexa asks Tom to provide Savannah a haven, which he does over his wife's objections. The visit helps Savannah grow closer to her dad and stepfamily; it also gives Alexa, on weekend visits, an opportunity to heal in classic Steel style, but the resulting courtroom drama feels rushed and inexpert. Thriller fans will be disappointed with all the family bonding, though Steel's many readers will, of course, devour this. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One


The man sitting in the threadbare chair with the stuffing pouring out of it appeared to be dozing, his chin drifting slowly toward his chest. He was tall and powerfully built with a tattoo of a snake peering out of his shirt on the back of his neck as his head shifted down. His long arms seemed lifeless on the arms of his chair in the small dark room. There was an evil cooking odor coming from the hallway and the television was on. A narrow unmade bed stood in the corner of the room, covering most of the filthy, stained shag carpet. The drawers of a chest were pulled open and the few clothes he had brought with him were on the floor. He was wearing a T-shirt, heavy boots, and jeans, and the mud encrusted on his soles had dried and was flaking into the carpet. As peacefully as he had been sleeping, suddenly he was wide awake. He jerked his head up with a snort, and his ice-blue eyes flew open, as the hair stood up on his arms. He had an uncanny sense of hearing. He closed his eyes again as he listened, and then stood up and grabbed his jacket with a single stride across the narrow room. With his head erect, the snake tattoo disappeared back into his shirt.

Luke Quentin slipped quietly over the windowsill and made his way down the fire escape after closing the window behind him. It was freezing cold. January in New York. He had been in town for two weeks. Before that, he had been in Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky. He had visited a friend in Texas. He had been traveling for months. He got work where he could find it. He didn't need much to live on. He moved with the stealth of a panther, and was walking down the street on the Lower East Side, before the men he had heard coming reached his room. He didn't know who they were, but he was smarter than to take a chance. They were cops more than likely. He had been in prison twice, for credit card fraud and robbery, and he was well aware that ex-cons never got a fair shake, from anyone. His friends from prison called him Q.

He stopped to buy a paper and a sandwich, shivered in the cold, and went for a walk. In another world, he would have been considered handsome. He had huge powerful shoulders, and a chiseled face. He was thirty-four years old and, with both sentences, had done a total of ten years. He had served his full time and hadn't been released on parole. Now he was free as the wind. He had been back on the streets for two years, and hadn't gotten into trouble so far. Despite his size, he could disappear in any crowd. He had sandy nondescript blond hair, pale blue eyes, and from time to time he grew a beard.

Quentin walked north, and west when he got to Forty-second Street. He slipped into a movie house just off Times Square, sat in the dark, and fell asleep. It was midnight when he got out, and he hopped on a bus and went back downtown. He assumed that by now, whoever had come to visit earlier would be long gone. He wondered if someone at the hotel had tipped the cops off that he was a con. The tattoos on his hands were a dead giveaway to those who knew. He just hadn't wanted to be around when they walked in, and hoped they'd lose interest when they found nothing in the room. It was twelve-thirty when he got back to the dreary hotel.

He always took the stairs. Elevators were a trap--he liked to be free to move around. The desk clerk nodded at him, and Luke headed upstairs. He was on the landing just below his floor when he heard a sound. It wasn't a footstep or a door, it was a click. Just that. He knew it instantly, it was a gun being cocked, and moving like the speed of sound, he headed back down the stairs on silent feet, and slowed briefly only when he got to the desk. Something was off, very off. He realized they were behind him then, halfway down the stairs. There were three of them, and Luke wasn't going to wait and find out who they were. It occurred to him to try and talk his way out of it, but every instinct told him to run. So he did, he ran like hell. He was already down the street by the time they made it out the door at a dead run. But Luke was faster than nearly any man alive. He had run track in the joint for exercise. People said that Q was faster than the wind. And he was now.

He was over a fence, behind a building, and grabbed the roof of a garage and swung over another fence. He was in the thick of the neighborhood, and he knew by then he couldn't go back to the hotel. Something was very, very wrong. And he had no idea why. He had a snub-nosed gun shoved in his jeans, and he didn't want to be caught packing arms, so he dumped it in a trash can, and ran behind a building into an alley. He just kept running and figured he had lost them, until he hit another fence, and suddenly a hand came up behind him and grabbed his neck in a viselike grip. He had never felt anything so tight, and he was glad as hell he'd dumped the gun. Now all he had to do was get rid of the cop. His elbow shot into the ribs of the owner of the grip, but all he did was tighten his hold on Luke's neck, and squeeze, hard. Luke was dizzy almost instantly and despite his impressive size fell to the ground. The cop knew just where to grab. He landed a resounding kick into Luke's back, who let out a stifled groan between clenched teeth.

"You sonofabitch," Luke said, grabbing for the other man's legs, and suddenly the cop was down, and they were rolling on the ground. The cop had him pinned in a matter of seconds, he was younger than Luke, in better shape, and he had been waiting for the pleasure of Q's company for months. He had followed him all across the States, and had already been in his room twice that week and once the week before. Charlie McAvoy knew Luke Quentin better than he knew his own brother. He had gotten special permission from an interstate task force to track him for almost a year, and he knew that if it killed him, he was going to get him, and now that he had, he wasn't going to lose him. Charlie got on his knees and slammed Luke's face into the ground. Luke's nose was bleeding profusely when he looked up, just as the two other detectives came up behind Charlie. All three of them were plainsclothesmen, but everything about them screamed cops.

"Easy boys, play nice," Jack Jones, the senior detective, said as he handed Charlie the cuffs. "Let's not kill him before we get him to the station." There was murder in Charlie's eyes. Jack Jones knew Charlie had wanted to make him, and why. Charlie had told him in confidence one night when he got drunk. Jack had promised him not to say anything to anyone when he saw him the next morning. But he could see what was happening to Charlie now, he was shaking with rage. Jack didn't like personal vendettas getting into business. If Luke had moved a hair to break free and run from them, Charlie would have shot him. He wouldn't have winged him or shot him in the leg, he would have killed him on the spot.

The third man on the team radioed for a patrol car. Their own car was several blocks away, and they didn't want to move Luke that far. They weren't going to take that chance.

Luke's nose was bleeding copiously onto his shirt, and none of them offered him anything to stop it. He would get no mercy from them. Jack read him his Miranda rights, and Luke looked arrogant despite the ferocious nosebleed. He had icy eyes, and a stare that took them all in and gave nothing away. Jack thought he was the coldest sonofabitch he had ever met.

"I could sue you bastards for this. I think my nose is broken," he threatened, and Charlie gave him a scathing glance as the other two men pushed him toward the car. They shoved him into the car, and told the cops driving they would meet them at the station.

The three men were quiet on the way back to their car, and Charlie glanced at Jack as he turned on the ignition and then slumped against the seat, looking pale.

"How does it feel?" Jack asked him as they drove downtown. "You got him."

"Yeah," Charlie said quietly. "Now we gotta prove it and make it stick."

By the time they got downtown and into the station, Luke was looking cocky. There was blood all over his face and shirt, but even cuffed, he was strutting his stuff.

"So what are you guys doing? Looking for someone to pin a mugging on, or stealing an old lady's purse?" Luke laughed in Charlie's face.

"Book him," Charlie said to Jack, and walked away. He knew he'd get credit for the collar. He'd been following him for way too long. It was just sheer luck Quentin wound up back in New York. Providence. Fate. Charlie was happy to have nailed him in the city where he worked. He had better connections here, and liked the DA they worked with. He was a tough old guy from Chicago, and more willing to prosecute than most. Joe McCarthy, the DA, didn't care how full the jails were, he wasn't willing to let suspects go. And if they proved everything Charlie hoped they would about Luke Quentin, it was going to be the trial of the year. He wondered who McCarthy was going to assign the case to. He hoped to hell it was someone good.

"So what's the beef you trumped up for me?" Luke asked, laughing in Jack's face, as a rookie shackled him and started to lead him away. "Shoplifting? Jaywalking?"

"Not exactly, Quentin," Jack said coolly. "Rape, and murder one, actually. Four counts of each so far. Maybe you'd like to tell us something about it?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow, as Luke laughed again and shook his head.

"Assholes. You know it won't stick. What's the matter? You got a bunch of murders you can't solve, so you figured you'd do some one-stop shopping and pin them all on me?" Luke looked totally undisturbed, and almost amused, but his eyes were like steel, and an evil shade of blue.

Jack wasn't fooled by the bravado. Luke was slick. They had evidence that he had committed two murders, and they were almost sure of two others. And if Jack's guess was right, Luke Quentin had killed over a dozen women in two years, maybe more. They were waiting for a more conclusive DNA report on the dirt from...

Customer Reviews

A new maturity!
I sense a new maturity in Danielle Steel's latest books. The glamorous fairytales have given place to more down to earth stories about people and their lives and strives. Yes, we are still dealing with successfull people from the upper classes. Moneyed families living in fabulous mansions. But the difference is there. And distinct.

Alexa Hamilton is single mother to 17 year old Susannah. After a bitter divorce ten years ago, Alexa becomes a lawyer and has built a brilliant career as an assistant D.A. in New York. When accused serial murder Luke Quentin is captured and put to trial, Alexa is handed the case, which is an opportunity of a lifetime.

Not long after she has started the trial preparations, threatening letters, addressed to beautiful young Susannah, start arriving. Suspecting that Luke Quentin may have something to do with the letters, Alexa, still hurt by her ex-husband Tom's betrayal, feels forced to send Savannah back to him and his new family until the trial is over.

The book is first of all a story about love, betrayal, bitterness and finally - healing - within a family. Parallell with the trial, we follow as old wounds are being exposed, the healing process and how it all affects both the relationship between mother and daugther and the whole family as such. And apart from circumstances and surroundings, it's not so different from similar incidents lots of people go through in the course of a lifetime.

Danielle Steel has always been a great storyteller known for light entertainment told with - especially lately - warmth and wisdom. There may be luxury and glamour but there is no doubt the author has known loss and suffering. Both earlier and later work bears proof of that.

Still as busily writing as ever, Danielle Steel can be trusted to deliver. As the saying goes, she is a phenomenon!

Enjoy!

Finally...I Have Little To Complain About =-)
Danielle Steel is an author that no matter how many times she disappoints, you continue coming back for more in the hopes that she will redeem herself. I must say that I enjoyed this story. She stepped away from the fairytales, and attempted something more edgy and realistic. I loved the tight knit relationship between Alexa and Savannah, and I thoroughly despised the character of Luisa, and pitied the weakness of Tom, which is a testament to the dynamic of Steel's writing, because I loathe a story where everything, including the characters, are sugarcoated and nauseating. I did get a sense that the romance between Alexa and Edward was a bit rushed and underdeveloped, but that's to be expected I guess when writing a book from a couple of different angles. I, too, hope that Steel continues taking the time to craft stories that don't fit the cookie cutter molds she has been cheat sheeting with as of late. Because 'Southern Lights' was a long awaited step foward for her imo.

Wonderful!
After over 70 books, Danielle Steel had gotten into a ho hum rut. I wasn't sure how this book would be. She hit it out of the park!!! She skillfully wove 2 stories together into a single conclusion.

Alexa was divorced from Tom and raised her daughter Savannah alone. Forced out of the marriage was more like it. Tom's ex-wife got pregnant and he had to re-marry her. Alexa meanwhile went to law school in NY and became an assistant DA. She is given a difficult case of rape and murder with 18 victims in different states. Her daughter is sent threatening letters by either the defendant or his accomplice. Alexa makes the difficult decision to send 17 year old Savannah to Charleston SC to live with her father, Tom to keep her safe.

Tom's wife in enraged and refuses to even be polite to Savannah but the rest of the family including her half brothers and sister welcome her. The grandmother had been instrumental in destroying Alexa's marriage to Tom, but realized that she had made a mistake. At first she was cool to Savannah, but when Savannah said she wanted to know about her Southern history, the grandmother decided that she liked her. She is a hard core Confederate and couldn't reconcile herself to Tom's marriage to Alexa who was a "Yankee."

What makes this work is the successful back and forth telling of Alexa's trial work on this case, and Savannah's adjustment to life in Charleston which she hadn't seen since she was 6 years old. Tom tries to admit to Alexa that he never stopped loving her but Alexa with great class tells him to never tell her that again. She says they MAY be able to be friends.

I hope she can keep up this roll. Her last few books were too repetitive of the same theme. Husband divorces wife and marries younger woman. That was BORING!!!