a review of "Still Missing" [50]

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
(St. Martins Press, ISBN 978-0312595678)

As the book opens, we find out that Annie O'Sullivan is a survivor of a truly horrible, terrifying experience. A year ago, the 32 years old Realtor, living on Vancouver Island, was just closing up an open house, getting ready to meet her boyfriend for dinner. She was successful, owned the house of her dream and had a satisfying personal life. Then, in a moment, she is abducted by a madman, the Freak, as she comes to call him, who takes her to a cabin he has prepared in the remote woods. He rapes her, controls her every action, every minute of her day, all part of his plan to create some bizarre perfect "family" in the wilderness.

Now, we know that Annie has survived, at least physically, because in the opening pages she is at her first therapy appointment, the first of the 26 that form the outline of this book. Gradually, session by session, we learn what happen to her, how she stayed alive, the terror, the fear, the grief, the guilt that she lived through..and that still haunt her. She survived physically, but whether she survived psychologically is another matter. She can barely leave her house and sleeps in the closet, and the idea that she will ever get her life back seems like a distant dream. The difference of who she is today as compared to the person, so independent, so confident, that she was is so believably told, that story alone would be fascinating. But that is only part of it. As police, in the person of Staff Sergeant Gary Kincade, begins to investigate the abduction, it soon apparent that the danger to Annie may not be over, and the story races on to an utterly surprising conclusion. I never saw that one coming!

As hard as it is to believe, this is Ms. Stevens first book and what a winner it is! This is a really good book..scary, moving, a psychological thriller, a mystery..all told through the eyes of Annie, who is a wonderful character. She is resourceful, she is incapacitated by fear, she is real, and flawed and sometimes funny, and very angry and bitter and always someone we are pulling for 100%. And she is not the only character that the author paints so well. The Freak..well, the Freak is one twisted, scary and yet somehow mundane man, if a psychopath can be mundane. One scary freak indeed.
And did I mention the ending? I read a lot of mysteries, a lot of thrillers and, quite honestly, I often have an idea where they are going. This one took a turn that I never saw coming and was a great ending to a great book.
Highly recommended.

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My thanks to the folks at St. Martin's Press for an Advanced Readers' Edition of this book.

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