The Blurb:

“Julian and Annie have only just announced their forthcoming marriage, when Annie’s twelve-year old son Dan mysteriously fails to come home from school. Despite an extensive police investigation, the days turn into weeks and it is as if he has vanished into thin air. Over the next three years, Annie refuses to give up hope that somewhere her son is alive and will one day return home. Julian, meanwhile, can’t help but yearn for Annie to put the past behind her and move on. Then, out of the blue, a call from Glasgow brings shocking news of Dan’s fate. And far from being over, it seems the mystery of his disappearance is only just beginning…”

What I thought:

When I finish a book I sometimes gather together several more books and spread them out in a big fan and ask either the cat or Mr Whisperer to decide what I should read next. With the cat finding what was in her bowl more interesting that my spread of lovelies, I resorted to interupting Mr Whisperer’s DVD and asking him what he was feeling about these particular six. After rolling his eyes to the ceiling before realising that I wasn’t going to go away so he may as well get it over with, he scanned his eyes back and forth, back and forth before pointing at Deceptions. “This one,” he said. “But, I only got this sent in the post today so are you sure?” I replied. “Yep! I’m feeling the vibes. Go with this one.” Alas, he is a wize Mr Whisperer indeed!

Pretty much from page one of this book I was hooked. It is a sparsely and tightly written book with no unecessary padding and the book leaps straight in. The story is narrated by Justin, the fiancé of Annie who is widowed with two children, 12 year old Dan and 8 year old Rachel. Justin and Annie have just become engaged and life is finally settling down for the couple when….bam! Dan doesn’t return home from school. Being narrated by Justin really worked, in my opinion: Dan wasn’t his child, and much as Justin loved Annie and Rachel he hadn’t quite managed to make the relationship with Dan work yet so there is a sort of remoteness and detatchment as we see Annie fall apart through his eyes rather than going through the angst of what the parent must be going through. While time goes on Annie still hasn’t given up hope of Dan being found whereas Julian wants to move on with their lives now and believes that Dan may be dead.

During the course of the book, the reader is made privvy to circumstances that may actually imply that Dan ran away from home, rather than was abducted as Annie thinks. Annie, as would be completely natural I would assume, can’t believe that there would be any reasons that her son would want to leave home and defends his every action, even the fact that since starting the local secondary comp (at her decision – she wanted him to mix with different people and gain experience of other people and culutres) he has fallen in with a dubi0us crowd and his clothes, walk and accent had started to change in recent months.

Half way through this book, Dan’s fate is actually revealed and the rest of the book follows the aftermath of that phone call that Annie recieves out of the blue. I can’t reveal the outcome here as it will spoil the book, but suffice to say that it may be one you’re not expecting.

I read this book in a day; it was very “moorish”. The narrative was so slick in its simplicity that you never feel you are being given information you don’t need but, despite the almost remote feel of it, all the main characters are sufficiently fleshed out that they feel whole and three-dimensional and you want to continue with them to the end of the book and the resolution. 

I would highly recommend this book. Has anyone else read it yet?

You can read Kim from Reading Matters review here.