I’m not yet sure what I think of this novel. I got turned on to the author by my mom, who loaned me an earlier work called “Blinded.” My interest, really, is fuelled by proximity. White lives in Boulder, Colo., and his books are set in the quaint college town that lies just 40 miles away from where I live in Denver.
White uses familiar landmarks and references that I sometimes wonder are lost on people who don’t know them. Despite this, I tend to be drawn into his storytelling a little more than books set in other locales.
Compared to “Blinded,” and other psyhological thrillers, I found this latest to be a bit more deliberate. White’s protagonist, Dr. Alan Gregory, finds himself in another pickle where he’s faced with professional dilemmas — balancing patient confidentiality versus perhaps saving the life of some unknown person who could be in danger. The trick, as always, is for Gregory to figure out how keep both promises: the promise to his patient and the social promise to the greater good.
Where it gets more complicated this time around is that his partner in practice, Diane, has been kidnapped and it’s tied up with the disappearance of a local teenage girl whose parents sought Gregory’s counsel eight years before.
White tried to draw parallels between his fictional case and the real life JonBenet Ramsey case. You can’t be alive and not know who JonBenet was. That case is still unsolved.
The similarities or instances of real-world/fake-world crossover:
- White staged his fictional abduction of the girl on Christmas — just as JonBenet’s real abduction was.
- The fictional missing girl and JonBenet were childhood friends.
I think where I stumble is that I feel White is trying to make a statement about the JonBenet case, but I feel it’s not terribly defined. Yes, the Boulder PD bungled the case. Yes, they are aware they bungled it. Yes, they will keep investigating until it’s solved.
Yes, the case has drawn unfortunate attention to the town, which nestles into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Such ugliness amid the beauty that is the mountain range.
Like I said, the statement is there. I’m just not sure he defined it well.
Overall, I’m not sad I spent time with this one. White is a good storyteller and his writing shows he’s able to craft good suspense fiction. I think I’d like to read a couple more of his books to make sure what I read this go around is at least consistent.
Tags: books, denver, goodness, kidnapping, novel, novels, parent, promise, promises, reading, suspense, thriller
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