Lisa recommended this to me, and since we've only had really divergent opinions on one book (Corelli's Mandolin) in our entire friendship, I moved it to the top of my list. (I almost accidentally took out a book called Year of Frog which I must admit to now being incredibly curious about.)I could not put this book down. I was totally entranced by the story of Abby, a photographer in her early thirties whose fiance's daughter disappears when she is watching her one day. The story takes place (mostly) in San Francisco, and Richmond's descriptions of the neighborhoods and beaches are quite good.
Now, the book was not perfect -- Richmond kept interrupting the story to present information on memory and hypnosis and other topics that were keeping Abby up at night when the little girl went missing. Sometimes I thought these interludes were interesting, sometimes they just broke the flow of the book. There was also about fifty pages in the middle that seemed to drag a little. I was scratching my head saying, "ok, the girl's still missing, Abby's relationship is falling apart, what now?" The other problem I had with the book which may be my fault, not Richmond's, was that I kept skimming paragraphs and pages of description to get to the more plot-oriented parts.
But in the end, Richmond presented a complete plot: beginning, middle, end, denouement. The writing is well-done, Abby is complex and familiar, and the story is compelling.
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