Genre:
Books;
Contemporary Fiction
Publisher:
Howard
Publication
Date: 5/14/2013
Rating:
4.5 out of 5 Excellent
PROS:
Though provoking topic; discussable moral dilemmas
CONS:
Sensitive subject
Imagine waiting for your spouse to
arrive home from a conference in a different city. Time slowly ticks
by while you continue watching the clock expecting her to pull in the
driveway at any minute. After all, her message said she would be
home in time for supper. Soon hours have passed, and your anxiety
and worry are slowly starting to change over to anger. Your emotions
are all over the place, continually flipping back and forth, not sure
how exactly you should be feeling. For Mitchell Brannon, this is not
a dream, it's his reality.
Long after midnight, Jill still not
home, Mitch quickly decides that something must have gone wrong on
her drive home and decides to call the police. The police are full
of questions, with not a lot of information to go on. After waiting
for them to bring his wife home, Mitch soon decides to try solving
the case with the help of his next door neighbor, Shelley (who
happens to be Jill's best friend). The police appear to have come to
a standstill, and Mitch decides doing something is better than doing
nothing. How could he ever look his two college age children in the
eyes if he just sat at home waiting for their mom to return?
Through many twist and turns, Mitch
soon realizes that Jill had several things she was hiding from him in
their marriage. Yes, they had a strong and stable relationship, but
there were some things he didn't know about her, some things she felt
she couldn't share with him. Does one ever truly know another human
being as well as they think they do?
Wow...what a thought provoking novel
this turned out to be! This would make an excellent book club study;
there were many times throughout I wish I would have been able to
discuss it with others! Rarely during this time of year does a book
keep me on the edge of my seat. I found myself getting so wrapped up
in the storyline, I sometimes forgot it was a fictional case I was
reading! The rare occasion I put the book down, I was quickly drawn
back to see if any progress had been made on Jill's case. Had they
found her yet? Did Mitch tell the kids their mom was missing? And
just what exactly was Shelley's relationship with Mitch?
On the technical side of things, Raney
did an excellent job in building character relationships and painting
real life vivid scenarios of what could happen in these type of
situations. The downside? As previously mentioned, the story seems
all too real which brought back emotions for me from when a school
age friend went missing in high school. It is obvious to this
reviewer the in depth research and time that went in to writing this
novel.
There was one area that was a little
unrealistic to me, and that was the relationship between Jill and
Shelley. A tad of a spoiler alert (but not a major one)...Jill was
aware of Shelley's feelings for Mitch before she went missing. I'm
not sure I could remain such close friends with someone, let alone my
neighbor, knowing they “had a crush” on my husband. I'm sure
there are situations where that happens, and people are trusting
enough and secure enough in their marriage to be comfortable around
the friend with the crush, it's just not something that is common in
my circle of friends!
Overall, this was such a great novel
that I cannot wait to pass it off to my friends and to get it on the
shelves in the library where I work! Yet again, be prepared for your
housework to be put on the back burner, you'll want to read your way
straight through this book!
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