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DARK DEVOTION, A
by Clare Francis
Soho Press Inc, June 2003
416 pages
$25.00
ISBN: 1569473250


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In A DARK DEVOTION, Clare Francis writes a haunting tale of unfulfilled dreams and misguided loyalties where one event can bring the best in people as well as their worst. Grace Dearden has been missing for several days and the Norfolk police are doing little in trying to find her. In a moment of desperation, her husband, Will contacts Alex O'Neill, an old childhood friend now working as a lawyer in London, for her assistance. She agrees to come over and help, not knowing what awaits her. Once she returns to her hometown she will notice a lot of changes and see that things are not quite what they seem.

Alex dives headfirst into the investigation coaxing the police to start an inquiry. During the course of her research she will uncover several secrets and lies unknown to her about Grace and why she disappeared. Is she dead? Did she decide to leave her husband and child for good? Or was she kidnapped? Alex will uncover the truth, and in the end, question everything she has ever believed about herself and her friends.

As the narrator of the story, Alex gives the story a whole new dimension of possibilities that no other character in the book could portray. She is emotionally fragile after her husband successfully defended a criminal from assaulting a police officer. Alex is not happy with the way things turned out and notices that her husband has been acting differently during the last few weeks. Paul has been keeping secrets from her and he has returned to drinking. When Will, a friend she has not seen in over ten years, calls her she takes it as an opportunity to reevaluate her life and return to the past. Some of her happiest memories are in Norfolk and she is looking forward to seeing her first love again.

Her arrival is not quite what she expected when she drives there. A lot has changed since her absence and she start to suspect her oldest friends of foul play in the disappearance of Grace. Her personal feelings clouds her judgment and this is one aspect of the book that makes it appealing. The other is that A DARK DEVOTION is a well-written novel filled with red herrings and suspense that is far from predictable. The characterization is strongly felt in the book when Alex reacquaints herself with people she has not seen in years as well as hearing their side of the story. Everyone has a different view of Will's wife and most of it is not favorable. Everyone had a motive to want Grace gone, but the truth will be heartbreaking. Life will change dramatically for all of the characters. What they decide to do in the end will be up to the reader's imagination. Clare Francis has a clear winner with this novel and it will motivate legions of readers to try out some of her other works. Mission accomplished, she already got one.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, April 2003

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