Danny Peters, an
autistic teenager, disappears and his kidnapper demands $5.145 million. His mother Carey and his stepfather Pete both
have secrets involving their own less-than-strictly-legal activities, so as
they try to raise the ransom, they each fear that they bear some responsibility
by bringing criminal people into their lives.
Carey approaches her mother Serenity, the very wealthy matriarch of the town,
and Pete speaks to a rich businessman who once fired him.
There is a major plot
twist which I found implausible. The
person responsible for Danny’s disappearance is a mastermind who has planned
for possible problems and sees everything that Carey and Pete do. Then in the end, this person’s motives are
rather unclear.
Characters are not
fully developed. One reason is that the
author withholds information so as to misdirect the reader and create
suspense. Everyone (e.g. Danny’s
biological ex-con father, Pete’s employee at his medical marijuana dispensary, Carey’s
boss, the policewoman searching for Danny, the F.B.I. agent who joins the
investigation, Serenity’s personal assistant, a barkeep) seems to have a secret
and a personal agenda. Some characters,
like Serenity, are just caricatures.
Danny is a highly
functioning autistic and the portrayal of someone with that diagnosis is
interesting. People tend to make
assumptions about him, some even calling him “retarded”, but it is obvious from
the beginning that he is very intelligent.
The town of Bleak
Harbor, Michigan, is holding a Dragonfly Festival when Danny disappears, and
the dragonfly, one of Danny’s obsessions, serves as a metaphor. Though they are pretty and seem harmless, there
is repeated reference to their “cruelly efficient jaws and serrated teeth” and “terrible
jaws, their knives for teeth”.
The book is an easy read,
though trying to remember everyone’s agendas does require some focus. The novel is fast-paced with a lot of
dialogue so is also a quick read. It initially
keeps the reader’s interest, but as the mastermind’s manipulations pile up, I
became annoyed because credibility is sacrificed.
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