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There are some betrayals that happen in our lives that are just too difficult to forget or forgive. Fourteen years ago, Matthew Lindstrom's wife, Gwen, disappeared. It was widely assumed that he had murdered her, which resulted in the loss of his livelihood as a photographer and forced him eventually to move on to new places. He's running a charter fishing service out of Port Regis in Canada when he receives an anonymous call telling him that Gwen is alive and living in Cyanide Wells, California. Bent upon justice, he travels to California to obtain proof that she is alive and that the allegations against him were false. Matt quickly finds out that Gwen has been living with another woman, a newspaper owner by the name of Carly McGuire. Faking his credentials, he gets a job as the staff photographer. Gwen, who was using her mother's maiden name, "Ardis Coleman", had been working at the paper and done an award-winning piece on a local murder. She is currently working on a book based on that story. She has been living with her daughter, Natalie, and Carly for all these years. And then suddenly she disappears again. Carly and Matt join forces to track Gwen/Ardis down. As they do so, they experience many surprises about a woman that both of them thought they knew well. Along the way, there is murder, suicide, staged death, kidnapping and land scams. Lies and deceit are the order of the day. This standalone by the acclaimed author of the Sharon McCone series didn't stand out for me in any meaningful way. The characters seemed flat. Gwen/Ardis was off stage for most of the book, and it was difficult to see what attracted first Matt and then Carly to her. They both seem to have severely misjudged her character. I found that hard to swallow, particularly in the case of Carly, who had been involved with Ardis for 14 years. Some of the writing seemed overwrought to me, particularly the segments which revealed Carly's inner thoughts. As always, Muller does a great job of placing the reader in the setting and the plot moves along nicely. However, the resolution was close to over the top; and I never really made an emotional or intellectual connection to the characters in the book. It was a disappointment for me.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, August 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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