Early in the morning, Arlette fearfully wakes up her husband Zeno Mayfield and tells him that their daughter, Cressida, never came home. Her bed was not slept in and Juliet, her older sister, never heard her from her the night before  Soon they are searching the Nautauga National Forest hoping to find some trace of her. They follow her trail from the last place she was seen-in a car with a semiconscious driver, scratches on his face and blood on the passenger seat, parked on the side of the road near the forest.  The driver is Corporal Brett Kincaid, a war hero returned maimed and broken, and fiance to Juliet.  No one is exactly sure what happened that night, but it is clear that Cressida met Brett Kincaid at a biker bar on the outskirts of town. They were seen getting into Brett’s car after an argument. But after that even Brett is not sure, since his medications and the drinks he had that night make things hazy and dreamlike.  They eventually find her sweater, near the river, sodden and dirty but there is no other trace of Cressida.  She is just gone.

Oates takes these broken lives and weaves a truly fascinating story about the effect of losing a child and sister and what it does to a family. Telling the story from each one’s perspective, Oates looks at the hidden jealousies, the give and take in a family’s dynamic, and the limits of love even within a family.  Zeno, Arlette and Juliet each have to face a world that has changed dramatically with this loss and with the prime suspect as someone  they knew and even loved they are now forced to consider the cost of justice and forgiveness. And even as she tells their stories Oates also weaves in Cressida’s story, the girl, the daughter, the sister who vanished.

Oates is without a doubt a good writer. There are places in this book that are lyrical and so evocative they bring tears to your eyes. She is especially effective in describing Zeno’s pain and loss and the tortured world of Brett’s mind.  But she is less effective with Arlette, Juliet or Cressida and there is an unevenness to the writing that is sometimes jarring.  This is particularly evident when you are hearing the story from Juliet’s perspective where Oates uses a one sided conversational style to show us the relationship between Juliet and Brett.

When the grenade exploded and the wall collapsed. It was combat. It was in action. Which is why you were awarded a Purple Heart…How brave you were from the start. Which is why you must not feel shame, that you are returned to us. You are not a traitor or a coward. You did not let your platoon down. You were injured, and you are convalescing. and you are in rehab. And you will be married.

Instead of making us identify with Juliet this stilted style makes Juliet sound wooden and blind to Brett’s suffering.

Yet in spite of this unevenness and  the difficulty in identifying with some of the characters, their pain and suffering seem totally real. Their loss is so horrific that you keep on reading, trying to find out how they managed to survive, what the cost was for them to forgive, and if they could ever really find closure.

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 stars out of 5) 

Recommend this book to: Keith and Sharon

Books Study Worthy? Yes

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