Positioned as a thriller, "Heartbroken" is more of a family saga. Birdie Burke is the owner/doyenne of Heart Island, and expects her children to visit her there every summer. Her daughter, Kate, reluctantly agrees one particular year -- she has just written a book based on her grandmother's journals and would rather be promoting it. Her daughter, Chelsea, on the other hand, is delighted to spend the summer with grandma -- and even gets to bring her best friend along.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, we have Emily ... who is involved with a criminally-minded jerk.

Oh, yes ... there's the ghost that Birdie keeps seeing (or thinking she sees) on the island. That would be the thriller part (I guess).

Naturally, all of these story lines converge.

At the end of the day, I think the book would have been better without the ghost story and treated more as a story of three generations of family and the challenges of their interactions.

(Review based on uncorrected advance proof.)