This is the perfect beach read! It is full of family secrets and drama, a mysterious stranger and a mother’s disappearance and so many twists and turns that it keeps you guessing till the very end.

When Stan Delaney opened the door and found a battered, shivering young woman named Savannah on the front porch, he did not know his life was going to change dramatically. Instead he did what any kind hearted person would do and invited her in. Stan and his wife, Joy, helped Savannah recover from the beating she received from her boyfriend and after she recovered, invited her to stay until she could get back on her feet. The Delaney children, all grown and out of the house, don’t know quite what to make of Savannah, but she seems to be helpful to their parents and she does things the kids might have had to interrupt their busy lives to do, which is helpful to them, too.

Then Joy goes missing, and Savannah cannot be found. Several days after she disappeared, Joy’s bicycle is found crumpled in a ditch under an apple tree along the road, but no sign of a body. The police begin to question Stan, the one who remains, but Stan refuses to cooperate, other than to say he does not know what happened. The children, Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke, at first are not too concerned. Surely their mother will turn up soon. But once the bicycle is discovered, Savannah cannot be found another father is strangely uncommunicative, they become worried and even begin to entertain the idea that their father might have had something to do with their mother’s disappearance. 

Morality, of Big Little Lies fame, carefully leaves a trail of clues, but always keeps you on that razor edge of uncertainty. As the story unfolds, the family history of a driven father, the children who never lived up to their potential, a mother who is trying to redefine herself in retirement, all come together for a surprising and very satisfying ending.

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 Out Of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Lauren and Keith 

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in e-library format.