DEEP WATERS

Due to overwhelming panic attacks, Charity Truitt left her position as CEO of her family's department store chain and relocated to a small town. When Elias, a high-powered Pacific Rim consultant and master of an imaginary martial art based on the study of water, inherits Crazy Otis Landing, Charity, as head of the shopkeepers' association, is sent to deal with him. The two get swept up in a murder investigation, followed by romance. Stephanie Diaz's ability to express emotions is impressive and suits the former executives perfectly, but it is in her presentation of the secondary characters, including a parrot named Crazy Otis, that the story shines. E.J.F. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 02]