Candles on Bay Street

Sam Thibodeau never forgot Dee Dee Michaud, the vivacious childhood crush who eloped from their northern Maine village with a drug dealer in a yellow Corvette. When she comes home with a 9-year-old son in tow, Sam, now a happily married veterinarian, has guilty fantasies about an affair. But Dee Dee is guarding a tragic secret, and her plans for Sam will be the ultimate test of their friendship. In Candles On Bay Street McKinnon — a pseudonym for serious novelist Cathie Pelletier (The Funeral Makers) — makes a second attempt (after Dancing at the Harvest Moon) at a sentimental best-seller like Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook. These sappy tomes may help some readers feel warm and fuzzy about life's tough breaks. But Winnie-the-Pooh does the same thing, with less predictable stories and more interesting characters. C-