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Author Larry Crane has penned an
absorbing novel of the unremitting fear, pain, and guilt parents go
through when their child is abducted. He has chosen to distinguish it
from similar storylines by inserting an event that actually happened,
then fictionalizing elements of that crime to interweave with his
primary tale. The result is a complex yet credible story rich in both
emotional and dramatic detail.
Set initially in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, the book grabs
readers’ attention from the beginning as a mother finds her child is
not in the classroom where she’s supposed to be. Tension rises as a
search of the school grounds and the immediate vicinity proves futile.
Local law enforcement gets involved. Then the FBI is brought in as
hours, days, and weeks begin to pass with virtually no clues as to what
really happened to the missing girl.
Crane focuses the bulk of his tale on the gut-wrenching ordeal the
parents are put through as time passes and the child’s disappearance
continues to be a mystery. Emotions are laid bare as this upscale
family’s life is torn asunder. The mother, Marcella, is racked with
guilt that turns from abject fear to near catatonia. The father, Gavin,
in an attempt to cling to some form of normalcy for his wife and other
children, overcompensates as the nagging horror begins to set in that
they may never see their daughter again.
Time goes by. Weeks becomes months. More than a year passes. In a last
ditch effort to change the downward trajectory of the couple’s
unraveling marriage, the decision is made to move and try to start
anew. Unknowingly, the New Jersey community they move into is the
locale of a child murder that happened years before. Marcella becomes
engrossed in that awful event. She comes to believe that by unearthing
the real story of what happened to the girl who was killed there, she
might in some way atone for what she hasn’t been able to accomplish in
her own daughter’s abduction. Her quest eventually leads to a
confrontation with the man convicted of the New Jersey crime—an
individual who embodies the evil she prays her own lost child is not
facing.
Crane has skillfully fashioned a compelling novel. His dramatization of
stoic police procedures juxtaposed against the emotionally charged
reactions of fearful family members, rings with credibility. His prose
reads swiftly, never slowing for superficial sentimentality, yet never
avoiding the sadness and despair inherent in every parent’s worst
nightmare. The inclusion of a true and infamous event that involved
high-powered celebrities such as William F. Buckley and others, adds a
layer of interest and involvement that may have readers looking for
additional information long after they’ve turned the last page.
This is an intelligent thriller that feels
ripped-from-the-headlines. To his credit, the author excites without an
overdependence on gore, and creates suspense without an overreliance on
cliffhangers. It is a harrowing account that once started, will have
you eagerly coming back again and again until you reach this novel’s
end.
RECOMMENDED by The US Review