Review: Intriguing Mystery
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2013
Patrick Hurley has written a page-turner of a novel about a topic that is frequently in the news, the disappearance of a beautiful young girl.  As in real life, the possibilities abound:  A runaway, a kidnapping for ransom, a kidnapping for sex, a murder for vengeance...or something else.  The characters are entertaining, many of them loaded with emotional baggage and flawed, all of them with at least a plausible motive for the crime, but still interesting people with whom one can even sympathize more or less.  And the story is always entertaining, as the protagonist is pulled one way and another by clues that point in all directions.  It's as if, in an old western movie, the young cavalry officer leads his troops up to a partially destroyed wagon train and asks, "Which way did the Indians go?"  And the surviving pioneers point all over the compass.You will, of course, try your sleuthing skills to mentally arrest the guilty party before Detective Gallagher does, but be forewarned:  It won't be easy to solve this crime before the last few pages.