Lucy and her son, Edgar, have lived in New Jersey with her mother-in-law since her husband killed himself. Lucy is not a responsible mother, but Florence takes care of Edgar, a strangely intelligent, hypersensitive eight-year-old. When Florence suddenly dies, things fall apart, and Edgar is rather willingly kidnapped by a mysterious man who has been lurking around the area. He takes Edgar to a remote cabin in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, while a frantic Lucy and the local police launch an inept missing-person investigation. As months go by, Lucy tries to carry on with her life, while Edgar negotiates his way through the strange new place he has arrived at with his kidnapper, who is now acting like a surrogate father and seems to have some mission for Edgar to fulfill.
VERDICT Flirting with danger on many fronts, this second novel from the author of the award-winning Mathilda Savitch is perceptive, compassionate, and humorous, drawing readers into the lives of these quirky yet recognizable and sympathetic characters. [See Prepub Alert, 9/19/16.]
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