Blackstock's third novel in the Restoration series is slow-moving in the first half, but the pace picks up considerably in the second. The Branning family and their neighbors are now eight months into a worldwide blackout, trying to make ends meet and survive one crisis after another as violence rips their community apart. With the sheriff and his deputies desperately overworked and earning only a tiny fraction of their former pay, they can no longer keep their overcrowded, disease-ridden county jail under control. That means that it's up to Deni Branning to help clear the name of boy-next-door love interest Mark Green when he's wrongly accused of attempted murder. The novel reveals a heavy hand with religion, but Blackstock's overt sermonizing does offer some strong and wise thoughts on 'Forgiveness was not an emotion,' one character reflects. 'You didn't have to feel it. You just had to do it.'(July) -- Publisher's Weekly A CROSSINGS BOOK CLUB EDITION