Deadly Little Secrets

Synopsis:
Politics causes conflict between Deadly Little Secrets protagonist, Loretta Casterini and her best friend since the fifth grade, Dr. Julia Brooks. Loretta is the nurse at their local high school; a position that includes teaching sex education to upper class students. When she and her co-teacher introduce an AIDS awareness module into the curriculum, some parents in this seaside enclave don't like it one bit.

OK, it's a conservative coastal enclave in Orange County, California, but it's also the spring of 1985. AIDS knows no politics. 'It will kill anyone' is Loretta's take on this public health issue so they persevere until the school board gets involved. Wouldn't you know it, the board's new president, Steve Wilcox, is a guy Loretta never did like much mostly because Julia liked him too much. But that ended back in college, didn't it?

As hard as it is to believe that a guy as ruthless as Steve could father a son who hasn't got a ruthless bone in his body, Steve's 17-year old son Mark is a senior and a sweetheart who Loretta adores despite his genetics. Considering what happened after he left the school board meeting, you've got to wonder if knowing what his dad was going to do played any role in Mark's accident that night.

Much that happens over this 10-day period happens at Corona Cove Community Hospital. Thank God Loretta's closest nursing pals all still work there. Georgia Sweetwater, Peggy Slaughtery and Maddie Acquina pretty much run the 120-bed community hospital-by-the-sea. She depends on them to feed her information and they don't disappoint. Much of it valuable including dicey stuff about the good Dr. Brooks who they call 'Her Grace' though Georgia Sweetwater's the only one who calls Julia that to her face.

Many secrets layered into Deadly Little Secrets unravel fast in this 'Are you kidding me?' story that fills our protagonist with despair almost as much as it piques her curiosity about people she thought she knew.