Synopsis: "There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere."
Suburban wife and mother Eliza Benedict's peaceful world falls off its axis when a letter arrives from Walter Bowman. In the summer of 1985, when Eliza was fifteen, she was kidnapped by this man and held hostage for almost six weeks. Now he's on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, and Eliza wants nothing to do with him. Walter, however, is unpredictable when ignored--as Eliza knows only too well--and to shelter her children from the nightmare of her past, she'll see him one last time.
But Walter is after something more than forgiveness: he wants Eliza to save his life...and he wants her to remember the truth about that long-ago summer and release the terrible secret she's keeping buried inside.
My Confession: It's been a long time since I read, and really got into, a thriller story. But as soon as I read the basic synopsis of this book, I was hooked. I've always found abduction stories fascinating, perhaps because an author who can create a sympathetic antagonist is special and should be read. But mainly because these types of stories always feel like puzzles, and if I just pay careful enough attention, I can solve it before it's over.
This book didn't quite live up to that expectation. I was really excited to read it. The idea that Eliza had suppressed something horrible that happened during those six weeks and now had to relive it in order to possibly save her abductor--that's pretty powerful stuff. And it would have been, if there'd been a secret at all. There wasn't. If anything, it was a misunderstanding, a matter of semantics. Hardly something that Eliza had purposefully been hiding. My mind had initially jumped to a bunch of crazy conclusions--was she an accomplice? Did she kill that last girl? I was waiting for the promised suspense and "thrilling" conclusion. It just never came.
Slow Burn: There were numerous times where this story moved painfully slow. I liked the idea of jumping from the present time, with Eliza taking care of her children, to the past--1985, to be exact--when Elizabeth was forcibly in the company of Walter Bowman. But it just read like wading through quicksand. It was too slow for a suspense novel. I wasn't waiting in anticipation to see what was going to happen; I already knew what happened, and I guess I was just waiting to see how Lippman was going to write about it. I didn't get chills, didn't feel anxious, and slept like a baby after finishing it.
So, Stephen King--whose bombastic praise is slapped across the cover--I disagree. I don't find this "the best suspense novel of the year." Far from it. If there is praise to be heaped on this book, it comes in the portrayal of the abductor. Walter Bowman is one of the most complex characters I've ever read, and the way I was able to crawl into his head and almost understand what he was doing and why--that's creepy. His carefully planned manipulation of Eliza--creepy. The fact that when he's on death row, and the morality of the death penalty is constantly called into question, I still couldn't make up my mind whether he deserved to die or not--that's unnerving. That's where I wish this book had gone. I wish it had explored further the elements that made my skin crawl. There was too much narrative, too much story, and not enough sweaty-palms fear.
Recommendation: As far as thrillers go, I was nowhere near as uncomfortable as I should have been reading this. In fact, I could put it down, and did numerous times. It just wasn't very magnetic. There wasn't a big conclusion, a gigantic twist that no one saw coming. It all built to this big "secret" that Eliza was hiding, and it turned out there was no secret at all. Too much information was given to the reader, and since the road was blindingly lit and not dark and twisted, I navigated a little too well.
Rating: 2/5
373 pages, published by William Morrow (Sept. 1, 2010)
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