Eleven years ago, Alexa Hamilton fled Charleston, South Carolina, heartbroken and vowing never to return.

More than a decade has passed, and now Alexa is a strong and independent woman. She has worked her way up to assistant district attorney in Manhattan,  prosecuting only the toughest cases. All this is about to change when Alexa is assigned the case of Luke Quentin, an accused serial killer. As Alexa reviews many hours of evidence and prepares her case, the most precious thing in her life is threatened.

Savannah, Alexa’s seventeen-year-old daughter, is receiving threatening letters, and Alexa is almost certain that Luke Quentin is behind them. To keep her daughter safe, Alexa does the one thing she thought she never would: she asks her ex-husband to allow Savannah to stay with him in Charleston, the place she hates and swore never to return to.

In Charleston, Savannah begins getting to know her father, her stepbrothers and stepsisters, and the woman her father broke her mother's heart for. Meanwhile, Alexa works in the Manhattan courtroom trying to put the killer behind bars during the week. Making weekend visits to Charleston, Alexa begins to heal old wounds and grows even closer to the daughter she cherishes.

Danielle Steel is well-known for her novels featuring love, lust, and family dynamics. In Southern Lights, she gives the reader all that and more - a good creepy serial killer and a Manhattan courtroom to play out the tale. Steel is once more at her very best.