Tuesday, February 24, 2015

An Affluent Suburb Reels from Finding a Dead Baby

Ridgeway NJ, a university town with an affluent population, is not a place where you expect to find an infant buried beside a creek. The creek runs behind the university and twenty years earlier another suspicious death occurred there. The baby's death awakens interest in the old case, and three women are particularly affected.

Molly is recovering from a bout of depression occasioned by the stillborn death of her baby two years ago. She is working as a reporter for the Ridgeway Reader and beginning to find herself again when a coincidence gives her the assignment of the story on the dead baby. Her husband is worried that it will cause a relapse, but Molly knows she needs to pursue this mystery.

Sandy, a high school dropout with an out of control mother, is also affected by the death, but her major worry is that her mother has disappeared, and they are being evicted from their apartment. Sandy is very much alone trying to get her life back in order.

Barbara, married to the chief of police, is trying to be the perfect mother, but her children, particularly her son are having problems, and her husband is preoccupied with the baby's death.

The story is told from the perspective of these three women. The author does a good job of giving each woman a voice and a personal point of view. I liked Sandy. She is a resilient, tough kid given a hard life. Molly was not my favorite character. She was so unsure of herself that she became annoying. I didn't like Barbara at all, but her character was designed to be a bitch.

The plot is well done. Clues are dropped along the way, but you probably won't figure out what happened until the very end. This is a mystery that's quick to read and enjoyable

I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vine Program.



No comments:

Post a Comment