Tag Archives: Megan Andres

On the shelf: ‘A Treasury of Royal Scandals’ by Michael Farquhar

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

Michael Farquhar, author of history articles in the Washington Post, has turned his eye to the royal scandals of centuries past. Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s troubles look tame when compared to the scandals described in this volume. Subtitled The Shocking True Stories of History’s Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes and Emperors, you will find King Henry VIII, Queen Anne Boleyn, Catherine the Great, Nero and many others, With chapters covering the time periods from ancient Rome and Edwardian England, Farquhar delivers an encyclopedia of raging scandal, recording events of pedophilia, incest, beheadings and more. There is even a chapter on Papal scandals of bygone years.

 

This book is a definite must read for anyone who loves a good gossip or a bad royal. Read about Caligula, who was quite miffed when his Senate didn’t want to recognize his own horse as a fellow Senator, despite the new laws he had created to include the beast. And to top it all off, he had enough problems at home with his sisters that he made a few of them disappear.

 

This entertaining book can be found in many formats: book on tape, book on CD, and eAudiobook at the Library. Think that the world is drowning in its own moral decay? Read this book — it will make today look chaste!

On the shelf: ‘Empress Orchid’ by Anchee Min

Books, Entertainment, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

At one time in China, a woman’s value was judged by her marriage and children. For Imperial wives and concubines, this could mean life or a secret death. Author Anchee Min introduces Tzu His, who became China’s last empress. Orchid, as she was known in the Forbidden City, began life as an innocent country girl who became the Emperor’s fourth wife.

 

While others have told Empress Orchid’s story, author Min uses her own childhood in China to tell this story of a girl turned goddess. Orchid rises above all other women in the Forbidden City to become her Emperor’s favorite wife. She gives him an heir and, when enemies threaten China, leads her people as regent for 46 years.

 

Min’s native tongue helps give the story its scope. Her descriptions tell a tale of a time when the Boxers were gaining power and the Imperials were losing it. It was a time when the wives and concubines of an emperor fought for the chance to have an heir and the power and security that a son could bring. Orchid is the Cinderella of 19th-century China: a woman who had to become more than a simple country girl to rule her people in peace and justice.

On the shelf: ‘Dakotah Treasures Series’ by Lauraine Snelling

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

Hearing that her father is dying, Ruby Torvald takes her little sister Opal and leaves New York City for the wilds of Little Missouri in Dakota Territory. When they arrive in this pioneer town, they are shocked to discover their father is very near death and owns Dove House — a sordid bar, complete with barmaids. Before he dies, Per Torvald makes Ruby swear she will “take care of the girls” — the soiled doves in residence. Ruby finds herself suddenly faced with life on the frontier in a barely-there town.

 

Over the course of four books, Snelling tells the story of Ruby Torvald and Little Missouri. The author focuses on each of four women: Ruby Torvald, Pearl Hossfuss, Opal Torvald, and Amethyst O’Shaunasy. These women find themselves in circumstances often beyond their control in a time when women were not considered strong in body or emotion.

 

Ruby finds herself taking on the reform of Dove House while her younger sister Opal confronts societal views of women in the West. Pearl goes from riches in Chicago to a one-room schoolhouse in Little Missouri, and Amethyst comes to find her lost nephew Joel in Medora. The four women learn something about themselves and about God in this Inspirational Fiction series.

On the shelf: ‘Dead Wrong’ by Mariah Stewart

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

In February, 2004, three criminals sit together at a courthouse. They decide to play an innocent game: name three people you would kill if you knew you couldn’t be caught. Then the twist: they exchange lists.

 

Mariah Stewart’s Dead Wrong is the beginning of a four-book series which tells the tale of this horrid game and the lives threatened by it. In this first book, Mara Douglas is a child advocate for the Lyndon courthouse. She stands for those who have no voice: the abused, the neglected, and the lost. One of her cases has earned her a place in the game. The prize: her death.

 

When someone begins killing women in Lyndon, the police and the FBI get involved. What truly haunts them is that all the women so far have one similarity: their name is M. Douglas. Mara finds herself saddled with a former FBI agent as a bodyguard because her own sister, another FBI agent, fears something bigger.

 

As events unfold and two more die, Mara makes the connection. Once upon a time Mara advocated in court on behalf of the Giordino children. She helped their mother Diana take them away from their father Vincent. Vincent didn’t like that idea and decided that if he couldn’t have them no one would. In jail for murdering his family, Vinnie also happens to have played that game in the courthouse. And the man who took his list is after Mara.

 

Dead Wrong is full of twists and turns. It is both romance and thriller, genres that Mariah Stewart blends convincingly. But what may be the Dead Wrong‘s best promise is that there are still two more lists out there with two more killers waiting.

On the shelf: ‘Creepers’ by David Morrell

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, , , , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Ottawa Hills Branch

 

Once, a long time ago, the Paragon Hotel was THE place to be seen. Outfitted with all of the new technology of the day and situated in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the Paragon hosted celebrities and common folk alike. Famous chefs would spend hours preparing amazing room service and dining options. Morgan Carlisle, the owner of the Paragon, made sure that his place was the only place to be. And for a small group of Creepers, the abandoned hotel is still very much a site to see.

 

Professor Robert Conklin leads a group of students into the Paragon Hotel to explore its wastes. No one knows what really happened within its dank halls. Morgan Carlisle himself vanished within its walls. The Creepers, as they call themselves, allow one reporter to follow them into the building in an attempt to teach the world about “creeping” and why it shouldn’t be illegal. Being able to investigate abandoned buildings and the people who once lived inside them is not only a thrill but also an educational experience. Frank Balenger insists he will be fair and true in detailing the story. It’s a pity he’s not all he seems.

 

Morrell takes an underworld of adventure and twists it. The Paragon Hotel does not live up to its name at all. And the events that quickly unfold would scare even the staid horror fan. Voices and visions within the hotel’s walls soon entrap his heroes and the life and death struggle of the group soon takes over the educational experience.

 

Creepers is a truly original horror story. It takes a topic that could be something any of us would love to do and reminding us that sometimes staying home might just be the best choice. My copy of Creepers was a gift from my brother, and I loved the story and characters. Morrell even drew up another horror plot for his hero Frank Balenger, Scavengers. If you enjoy a good scare in the comfort of your own home, pick up a copy of Creepers today. Just make sure you read it with the lights on . . .

 

 

On the shelf: ‘Serpent’ by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

Serpent, Clive Cussler’s first National Water & Marine Agency Files book, gives readers a new hero for a new age. Kurt Austin has a master’s degree in Systems Management from the University of Washington and much experience in marine recovery. In Serpent, Austin and his Special Assignments Team of Joe Zavala and Drs. Paul and Gamay Trout find themselves conquering a mystery of legendary caliber.

 

“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”; Austin and his team soon find that there were a lot of things left out of the popular children’s rhyme. With the help of Nina Kirov, the team investigates industrialist Don Halcon. Halcon is dedicated to carving a new country out of the southwestern United States. To do so, Halcon needs a priceless pre-Columbian antiquity buried in the battered remains of the sunken Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria, and he’s prepared to do anything to get it.

 

Admiral James Sandecker, from Dirk Pitt fame, sends Austin and his team all over the world to stop Halcon before he can get his hands on the artifact. Austin and Zavala soon find themselves diving the Andrea Doria itself in order to gain access to a secured vault left behind when the liner sank fifty years before.

 

With a hefty dose of actual historical fact and fictional license, Cussler dishes out a wonderful first episode in the lives of the new heroes of NUMA. The subsequent novels in the series, Blue Gold, Fire Ice, White Death, Lost City and Polar Shift, all follow Austin as he pursues a life of intrigue and danger. Fans of Cussler’s Dirk Pitt will find much to love in Kurt Austin.

On the shelf: ‘Rescue My Child’ by Neil C. Livingstone

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , , , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

When Betty Mahmoody’s story first came to light, the United States was confronted with a problem of epic proportions: international parental abduction. Countless parents around the county were finally heard. Author Livingstone wrote Rescue My Child to help inform an entire generation of the cruelty these parents face every day.

 

Livingston focused on Corporate Training Unlimited (CTU), an organization composed of ex-Delta Force commandos, who would intervene in international cases. This book tells of four such cases. The stories detail the rescues of five children and one mother from various countries and situations. Laurie Swint Ghidaoui and her daughter Leila were rescued from Tunisia. Lauren Mahone was recovered in Jordan. Brittney Chowdhury was located in Bangladesh while Jeremy Hefner and his sister Amy were rescued in Ecuador.

 

Rescue My Child endeavored to alert the world about international parental abduction at a time when such a crime was hardly imaginable. CTU risked much to be able to help these families: prison, injury and even death. Had these men and women been discovered while on foreign soil and in possession of a child of a citizen, the United States could not have helped them. It is a reminder that some children do come home and also a reminder that some are still missing.

On the shelf: ‘Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony’ by Eoin Colfer

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

Artemis Fowl has done many things in his short life. He has mastered criminal enterprise. He has taken on Russian mobsters to save his father’s life. He has even saved the entire faerie world from a master criminal pixie. What a teenager! In this adventure, Artemis has met his match in a girl named Minerva, who kidnaps a demon, one of ten families of faerie, from an opera house in Italy.

 

Author Eoin Colfer is a former educator who had amazing success with the first Artemis Fowl novel and has continued to toss the boy genius into exciting adventures. Colfer’s stories have been compared with C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia as well as J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter series. Children around the world love the way Artemis uses technology, education and logic to expose the faerie world, endanger it, and then ultimately save it.

 

Artemis has always been a lonely, unique boy. Minerva is his ultimate competitor.
The Artemis Fowl series contain enough world travel, fantasy and mystery to intrigue any child. Who knows, it may even give the grandchildren some ideas! Start with the original Artemis Fowl and end the series with The Lost Colony. Your grandchildren will love them!

On the shelf: More books for the grand kids by various authors

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , , , , , ,
Empress Orchid
by Anchee Min

At one time in China, a woman’s value was judged by her marriage and children. For Imperial wives and concubines, this could mean life or a secret death. Author Anchee Min introduces Tzu His who became China’s last empress. Orchid, as she was known in the Forbidden City, began life as an innocent country girl who became the Emperor’s fourth wife.

 

While others have told Empress Orchid’s story, author Min uses her own childhood in China to tell this story of a girl turned goddess. Orchid rises above all other women in the Forbidden City to become her Emperor’s favorite wife. She gives him an heir and, when enemies threaten China, leads her people as regent for 46 years.

 

Min’s native tongue helps give the story its scope. Her descriptions tell a tale of a time when the Boxers were gaining power and the Imperials were losing it. It was a time when the wives and concubines of an emperor fought for the chance to have an heir and the power and security that a son could bring. Orchid is the Cinderella of 19th century China: a woman who had to become more than a simple country girl to rule her people in peace and justice.

 

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

The Commissario Guido Brunetti Series
by Donna Leon

Your plans for a trip to Italy fell apart? Until you can visit Rome or glide through Venice’s canals, do this: Take up with a policeman.

 

Donna Leon, an American living in Italy, has just brought out the 15th book, Through a Glass Darkly, in her mystery series set in Venice. Commissario Guido Brunetti is patient, principled and long suffering in the pursuit of justice in a bureaucracy that is often corrupt. He is married to Paola, who cooks wonderful meals and provides shrewd commentary. You finish a book feeling you’ve had a privileged homestay and seen sites far from the tourist track.

 

It’s best to begin the series with the first book, Death at La Fenice, since the author often refers to earlier incidents. Here, in the celebrated opera house, the world-famous conductor Maestro Helmut Wellauer, is poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Brunetti, accustomed to the mazey corruptions of Venice, is surprised at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top. That title is followed by Death in a Strange Country, in which the body of an American soldier is found in a canal. Next in the series is Uniform Justice, in which a cadet from Venice’s elite military academy is found hanged. The investigation leads to a wall of silence and hostility.

 

The series is very popular throughout Europe, and is gathering lots of fans in the U.S., many of whom also couldn’t vacation in Venice this year.

 

By Bill Hill, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

March of the Penguins
by Luc Jacquet and Jerome Maison

It is a strange life.

 

The Emperor penguins are born into darkness at the coldest end of the earth. To get to their mating territory 70 miles inland, they must waddle in short steps for a week through a hazard of up thrust ice scored by crevasses. As deep winter comes on, the females hatch one egg each, pass it to their partner and make the long march to the shore to feed and recover. The male Emperors stay behind cradling their precious eggs on the tops of their feet. They will huddle together through the long Antarctic winter going without food for as much as four months.

 

The darkness and terrible cold ease as the sun climbs higher. Shortly after the eggs hatch the females return, ready to spell the exhausted males who now must totter to the sea. The parents take turns shuttling to the sea for food till their chicks are old enough to make the journey themselves, and the cycle begins again.

 

Despite its billing as the “Official companion to the major motion picture,” this book is a distillation of the movie in 160 pages of photos with the movie’s narration for text. There is a short end chapter on the making the film. The publisher, National Geographic, has produced a handsome and fascinating book, one that could be shared with the rising generation.

 

By Bill Hill, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

Dakotah Treasures Series (Ruby; Pearl; Opal; Amethyst)
by Lauraine Snelling

Hearing that her father is dying, Ruby Torvald takes her little sister Opal and leaves New York City for the wilds of Little Missouri in Dakota Territory. When they arrive in this pioneer town, they are shocked to discover their father is very near death and owns Dove House — a sordid bar, complete with barmaids. Before he dies, Per Torvald makes Ruby swear she will “take care of the girls” — the soiled doves in residence. Ruby finds herself suddenly faced with life on the frontier in a barely-there town.

 

Over the course of four books, Snelling tells the story of Ruby Torvald and Little Missouri. The author focuses on each of four women: Ruby Torvald, Pearl Hossfuss, Opal Torvald, and Amethyst O’Shaunasy. These women find themselves in circumstances often beyond their control in a time when women were not considered strong in body or emotion.
Ruby finds herself taking on the reform of Dove House while her younger sister Opal confronts societal views of women in the West. Pearl goes from riches in Chicago to a one-room schoolhouse in Little Missouri, and Amethyst comes to find her lost nephew Joel in Medora. The four women learn something about themselves and about God in this Inspirational Fiction series.

 

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

On the shelf: ‘Dead Wrong’ by Mariah Stewart

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

In February, 2004, three criminals sit together at a courthouse. They decide to play an innocent game: name three people you would kill if you knew you couldn’t be caught. Then the twist: they exchange lists.

 

Mariah Stewart’s Dead Wrong is the beginning of a four-book series which tells the tale of this horrid game and the lives threatened by it. In this first book, Mara Douglas is a Child Advocate for the Lyndon courthouse. She stands for those who have no voice: the abused, the neglected, and the lost. One of her cases has earned her a place in the game. The prize: her death.

 

When someone begins killing women in Lyndon, the police and the FBI get involved. What truly haunts them is that all the women so far have one similarity: their name is M. Douglas. Mara finds herself saddled with a former FBI agent as a bodyguard because her own sister, another FBI agent, fears something bigger.

 

As events unfold and two more die, Mara makes the connection. Once upon a time Mara advocated in court on behalf of the Giordino children. She helped their mother Diana take them away from their father Vincent. Vincent didn’t like that idea and decided that if he couldn’t have them no one would. In jail for murdering his family, Vinnie also happens to have played that game in the courthouse. And the man who took his list is after Mara.

 

Dead Wrong is full of twists and turns. It is both romance and thriller, genres that Mariah Stewart blends convincingly. But what may be the Dead Wrong’s best promise is that there are still two more lists out there with two more killers waiting.

On the shelf: ‘And Then There Were None’ by Agatha Christie

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Ottawa Hills Branch

 

Originally published as Ten Little Indians, And Then There Were None invites ten complete strangers to a weekend getaway on a fictitious island outside of Devon, England. The host of the weekend is a millionaire who is nowhere to be found. Each guest was invited by the host under a different name.

 

Sounds like a classic mystery novel from Christie. Wait. It gets much better.

 

While most murder mysteries feature one crime, And Then There Were None tells the story of murder and mayhem over an entire weekend. The story is set to the tone of a nursery rhyme called Ten Little Indians. In the rhyme each little Indian meets a horrible fate. It’s no coincidence that there are only ten house guests.

 

Agatha Christie was no doubt the Queen of Crime when it came to the modern murder mystery. Her narrative style is enough to hold the reader by itself. Each of the ten characters is completely developed and faces their own demons as the weekend continues. Wicked pasts cannot be hidden. The rhyme ends with, “One little Indian left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.”

 

Take a look at And Then There Were None to find out who survives the weekend.

On the shelf: ‘Home Before Dark’ by Susan Wiggs

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

Lucinda and Jessie Ryder have always been close. The only two daughters of a golf tour pro, they find themselves living a life of constant upheaval. They go to new schools, conquer new stepfathers, and raise each other to become beautiful young women.

 

Lucinda, called Luz, finds a release from her frantic life in the form of photography and she shares her new love with her younger sister Jessie. But when Jessie’s life takes a turn after meeting a handsome law student, Luz steps up to be what their mother has not ever been: a parent.

 

Jessie’s fling ends with her pregnant and alone. She makes the decision to give up her child to her older sister and then flees Texas. Jessie follows her lover/professor around the world to photograph the most beautiful places on earth for sixteen years. Until a doctor’s diagnosis sidelines her hopes of a further career. She suddenly yearns to return home to see her sister Luz and the daughter they share. Lila has only ever known Jessie as her eccentric aunt who does anything she wants.

 

From the beginning, Jessie’s ways cause tension in her sister’s family. As Jessie meets and begins to fall in love with Luz’s neighbor, she sees that her two largest secrets could tear her family apart. One secret is not hers alone and traps her sister and brother-in-law in a veil of lies. One man only knows the other secret, her former professor, so that she can live her life on her terms rather than allow Luz to swallow her up.

 

Too many secrets. Too little time.

On the shelf: ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ by Philippa Gregory

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

Mary Boleyn, brought to court at fourteen, soon catches the eye of the lecherous Henry VIII. She begins a dashing affair with England’s king and begins to love her role as the unofficial queen. After the birth of two children, Mary begins to see her family for what they really are.

 

Her own uncle begins pushing Mary’s own sister Anne at the king. Soon, Mary is forced to step aside as her best friend and worst rival begins an affair with Henry. The world knows the story of Anne Boleyn—a young girl who twists a marriage out of King Henry VIII. But many do not know how she got there.

 

Mary is forced to find a life for herself and her illegitimate children while her uncle demands her support in bettering Anne’s position at court. She is present for all of Anne’s triumphs: Henry’s divorce from Katherine of Aragon, her marriage to the king, and the birth of Elizabeth. She is also present for the disasters: Anne’s miscarriage of a prince, her brother George’s arrest for treason and Anne’s execution.

 

Sibling rivalry takes on a whole new meaning between the Boleyn girls. Author Philippa Gregory takes the story and fleshes it out. She brings a morality tale to a historical event. This book is a real treat for any history buff.

On the shelf: ‘Home Before Dark’ by Susan Wiggs

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

Lucinda and Jessie Ryder have always been close. The only two daughters of a golf tour pro, they find themselves living a life of constant upheaval. They go to new schools, conquer new stepfathers, and raise each other to become beautiful young women. Lucinda, called Luz, finds a release from her frantic life in the form of photography and she shares her new love with her younger sister Jessie. But when Jessie’s life takes a turn after meeting a handsome law student, Luz steps up to be what their mother has not ever been: a parent.

 

Jessie’s fling ends with her pregnant and alone. She makes the decision to give up her child to her older sister and then flees Texas. Jessie follows her lover/professor around the world to photograph the most beautiful places on earth for sixteen years. Until a doctor’s diagnosis sidelines her hopes of a further career.

 

She suddenly yearns to return home to see her sister Luz and the daughter they share. Lila has only ever known Jessie as her eccentric aunt who does anything she wants. From the beginning, Jessie’s ways cause tension in her sister’s family.

 

As Jessie meets and begins to fall in love with Luz’s neighbor, she sees that her two largest secrets could tear her family apart. One secret is not hers alone and traps her sister and brother-in-law in a veil of lies. One man only knows the other secret, her former professor, so that she can live her life on her terms rather than allow Luz to swallow her up.

 

Too many secrets. Too little time.

On the shelf: ‘The Amber Room’ by Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, Reviews, , , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

In 1717, Prussian emperor Frederick I presented Peter the Great with a remarkable treasure: enough wall-sized panels covered with meticulously carved amber to decorate an entire room. Eventually installed in a palace near St. Petersburg, the Amber Room was stolen by the Nazis during the 1941 siege of Leningrad and hidden in Konigsberg, now Kaliningrad—after which little is known.

 

Scott-Clark and Levy recorded their investigation into the whereabouts of the Amber Room in an effort to both educate and fascinate the world. By searching through Romanov archives, Soviet files, and secret documents of the East German Police, the authors retrace the history and disappearance of one of the world’s major art pieces. During a time when amber was more valuable than gold, the Amber Room vanished into thin air.

 

While the first chapters seem heavy with material as the authors set up the history of the Amber Room, once the clues begin to fall into place, Scott-Clark and Levy fascinate readers as they trace the Amber Room all over Europe. They investigate not only rumors of the location of the pieces but also known facts. Interviews and archival documents help to further tell the story of one of the most famous lost artifacts of World War II.

 

On the shelf: ‘What the Dead Know’ by Laura Lippman

Books, Entertainment, Reviews, , , ,

By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

 

To be honest, I do not think I had heard of Laura Lippman’s work before What the Dead Know. As is the case with most readers, I looked at that inside cover summary in the hopes of finding a new and exciting book to read. From the very first page it becomes clear why Lippman has won so many writing awards for her other titles.

 

The story of the Bethany girls has captivated people for nearly thirty years. Two young girls, Sunny and Heather, taking a bus to the mall to see a movie on a Saturday afternoon turns into a nightmare when both girls vanish. Neighbors, colleagues, and family of the girls’ parents all suffer as the investigation reveals cracks in the family’s perfect facade.  Where was their mother that Saturday? Continuing her affair with her boss. Where was their father? Drinking in a bar after finding out about the affair from the man’s own wife.

 

Intermixed into the story is a woman who causes an accident with a SUV. She drives off and finally pulls over only to try walking to some unknown destination. When the police locate her, it is her words that form the true mystery –“I am one of the Bethany girls.” Over the course of several days the young woman finally admits to being Heather Bethany. Investigators are uncertain. Her own mother is terrified to believe it.

 

Heather’s tale of abuse and murder could chill anyone’s heart. But facts still seem to be missing. Heather says Sunny was murdered that same day, but her body was never found.  Heather details the man who kidnapped them: a cop. Things continue to add up but not equal out. Finally, the girls’ mother returns from Mexico. The plan is for the police to walk Heather by her to see if mothers can really know their children. With this final piece, it all falls into place in a way no one expected.

 

The book is fictional though based on a real abduction, but Lippman’s allusions to famous abduction/murder cases help to build the reality of life after Sunny and Heather vanish. She holds back nothing — the father who cannot bear to give up, and the mother who cannot stand to hope. This story gives the reader a new take on those stories on the news. A realization that what we hear is not the end no matter what the police find. Lippman has another award contender in What the Dead Know.