With determination and grit, Molly Boudreau gained her lifetime goal to became a doctor. She specialized in pediatrics, but works for money in Boston General's emergency room and for love at a free clinic. One of her patients is a woman unlike her usual clinic patients. Since Sarah Morgan first came for prenatal care, the two women have become friends, even though Sarah shares nothing about her life. Molly suspects she's in hiding from some abusive situation. On the day the clinic is closing for lack of funds, Sarah arrives moments before giving birth. Molly delivers a healthy baby boy and sends mother and child to Boston General for a check up. When she attempts to visit them that evening, Sarah and little Nicholas are nowhere to be found.

A couple of mornings later, Sarah appears at Molly's door begging her to keep Nicholas for a few days while she takes care of something that will free them from danger. She makes Molly promise to protect Nicholas, to keep him from the father who must never know he exists. Early next morning, Molly is shocked to learn Sarah has been murdered. To keep her promise to her friend, Molly puts her career in jeopardy by packing up and taking Nicholas home to Glens Crossing. She believes it's safer to let everyone assume the baby is hers, though she hates lying to her father and sister. Instead of the welcome and help she expected from them, her father is angry and lets her know how disappointed he is in her.

After being seriously wounded on assignment in the Middle East, journalist Dean Coletta is returned to New York via Germany and finally released from hospitalization. When he tries to contact his sister Julie - the only family he has - he learns she's been missing for months. He eventually identifies Sarah's body as his sister and is told she'd been living under an alias and has recently given birth. Dean intends to use all his investigating skills to find Julie's killer. The trail leads him to Glens Crossing, Indiana.

The mystery surrounding the murder of Nicholas's mother and the identity of his father in PROMISES TO KEEP is enough to keep the pages turning, but what really makes Susan Crandall's works so riveting is her ability to show her characters' growth and the evolution of their relationships with consummate reality. And to create people one can truly care about. In PROMISES TO KEEP, she demonstrates her understanding of both the merits and the trials of living in a small town, and she does it with a warmth that can't help but please.

Our concerns don't only lie with Molly and Dean and the way they go from their initial suspicions of each other to something more, or who will end up with baby Nicholas. Molly's sixteen-year-old nephew Riley, whose parents' story was told in THE ROAD HOME, takes giant steps toward manhood when faced with a stunning truth about his family.

PROMISES TO KEEP is Ms. Crandall's fourth book set in Glens Crossing. If you've missed the earlier books, you can start anywhere to catch up. You're in for a special treat if you do.

-- Jane Bowers for Romance Reviews Today