This book gripped me right from the start.
The chapters are short and to the point, broken up into different character's viewpoints, although at first it is not 100% clear who the narrator is of each piece, it soon establishes who is narrating which part. Actually the only part I didn't know who was narrating was Rainie's narration, in the early stages, and once you know a little more about her, it becomes obvious why the author has done this. The language throughout is very accessible, the tension is built up very cleverly. I must admit, I did suss "whodunnit" before the end of the book, although I didn't know why. I think there is a very telling part in the story when the reader could pick up the "whodunnit", but it would be easy to miss. (I suppose I'm used to Patricia Cornwell scattering subtle clues as to the identity of the perpetrator of the crime, although in this novel, only one person ends up dead, I'll not give away who or why, you need to read the acknowledgements at the end of the novel, and visit the author's own website. I must say I like the idea.)
Now the bumph!
When someone you love vanishes without a trace, how far would you go to get them back?
For ex-FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, it's the beginning of his worst nightmare: a car abandoned on a desolate stretch of Oregon highway, engine running, purse on the driver's seat. And his estranged wife, Rainie Connner, gone, leaving no clue to her fate.
Did one of the ghosts from her troubled past finally catch up with Rainie? Or could her disappearance be the result of one of the cases they'd been working - a particularly vicious double homicide, or the possible abuse of a deeply disturbed child Rainie took too close to heart? Together with his daughter, FBI agent Kimberly Quincy, Pierce is battling the local authorities, racing against time and frantically searching for answers to all the questions he's been afraid to ask.
One man knows what happened that night. Adopting the alias of a killer from eighty years ago, he has already contacted the press. His terms are clear: he wants money, he wants power, he wants celebrity. And if he doesn't get what he wants, Rainie could be gone for good.
Sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, it's still not enough. As the clock winds down on a terrifying deadline, Pierce plunges headlong into the most desperate hunt of his life, into the shattering search for a killer, a lethal truth, and for the love of his life who may be forever . . . gone.
To visit the author's website http://www.lisagardner.com/