Having published her first book in 1981, Sandra Brown (a.k.a. Laura Jordan, Rachel Ryan, and Erin St. Claire) is a prolific, popular writer who has written close to seventy novels, over forty of which have become bestsellers. Although such a large quantity of work written in a relatively short time has caused some of it to suffer in quality, her best fiction compares favorably with that of some of the finest novelists of the past and present, especially in terms of her compassionate worldview and her virtuoso delineation of human relationships.

Her popularity rests on those traits, as well as her expert storytelling ability and her egalitarian approach to social problems, an approach that is tinged with romance and feminism. Having started her literary career as strictly a writer of romances, Brown has evolved into a yeoman novelist who regularly produces mainstream mysteries and thrillers...