There Was a Little Girl — Susan Rogers Cooper

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

Romance novelist, harried mom, and sometimes sleuth, E.J. Pugh has a habit of being in the wrong place at the right time. This time she's on hand to pull a suicidal teenager from a freezing Texas river. The distraught young girl, Brenna, has good reasons for wanting to end it all, since she comes from the worst horror of a family since Charles Manson's. And a good Samaritan act has propped E.J. into the middle of the dysfunctional mess.

Then comes the news that makes E.J.'s blood run-cold: the girl's mother has been murdered, and Brenna stands accused of the crime, E.J. feels certain the frightened teen is innocent, and the determined crime solver is making it her business to save a troubled child's life one more time. . .even at the risk of losing her own.