Through the Darkness
Marcia Talley
Avon, Sep 2006, $6.99
ISBN: 0060587415

Hannah Ives is delighted to have her daughter Emma, her son-in-law Dante and her three grandchildren move back to Maryland where they plan to open up Dante's Paradiso, a plush full service spa with a day care facility. Emma leaves Timmy by himself for a couple of minutes in the spa's nursery, but when she returns he is missing.

A through search of the premises prove that the infant is not there. The police and the FBI investigate, but no ransom demand is made leading the profiler to believe that the kidnapper plans to raise the child as theirs. As the days pass with no recovery in sight, the family loses hope; Emma and Dante drift apart as they both subconsciously hold her culpable. After an odd encounter at the mall, Hannah begins her new brand of inquiry that includes an audacious plan to bring her grandson home.

As usual Marcia Talley has written an entertaining who-done-it that pulsates with energy due to the interactivity of the beleaguered family members and several support players. Hannah, a strong willed individual, takes the necessary actions (at least as she sees it) because once she gets an idea in her head a nuclear bomb could not dissuade her. A subplot involving sexual predators targeting minors over the Internet adds a warning to parents as well as enhancing a tense trip Through The Darkness of human cruelty and desperation guided by the intrepid Hannah Ives, grandmotherly amateur sleuth and lioness.

Harriet Klausner