Michael Allen Dymmoch MIA

MIA

Michael Allen Dymmoch

Dunne, Apr 2008, $24.95

ISBN: 9780312373719

Only a few months have past since Rhiann's husband Mickey died and it is unsurprising that she still grieves her loss. Her sixteen year old son Jimmy by her first husband Billy wants to know more about his paternal grandparents the Wildings. Rhiann had nothing to do with them since they treated her with disdain. Jimmy finds some letters and decides to visit them.

Jimmy meets Beth and falls hard for the girl who is the same age as he is. They hide their relationship because her father would be furious. When he spends the weekend with Beth, Rhiann accepts this. Besides she has her own problems to confront including a police officer stalking her and a new neighbor John Devlin interested in her. Unknown to Rhiann, John has a secret agenda in which he hides his true identify from Rhiann as he knows the impact will prove devastating to her, Jimmy and Beth's dad.

Secrets that have been hidden for years surface with each character coping differently to the revelations. Interestingly, since the stalker is a cop his peers reject Rhiann's accusations. Rotating points of view enables the audience to know what motivates the prime players, but also somewhat slows down the pace of a suspense laden family drama filled with plausible surprising twists as one shocker after another is revealed.

Harriet Klausner