Monday With Kaye: "Where You Can Find Me" by Sheri Joseph (Reviewed by Kaye George)

This week Kaye considers the suspense novel Where You Can Find Me by Sheri Joseph. As always, make sure you check out other “Monday With Kaye” posts for still more reading suggestions…..

Where You Can Find Me by Sheri Joseph

In this novel of suspense, the reader enters into the Vincent family at an unfortunate moment. Their ordeal seems over, but it has just begun. The fourteen-year-old son, Caleb, was kidnapped three years ago and, now recovered from his imprisonment, rejoins the family. There is, of course, no way for them to

return to the way they were before. The parents, Marlene and Jeff, and the sister, Lark, who eleven, just the age Caleb was when he was kidnapped, spend a considerable amount of time trying, though.

The story deals with difficult subject matter, child sex abuse, which the four family members each dance around in their own ways. The true situation, which the FBI is trying to ferret out, starts to reveal itself, gradually. Cracks in the pre-kidnapping, happy-family façade appear and widen, in spite of attempts to plaster over them. Lark has been sent to a private school to shield her from the media attention, which has intensified with Caleb’s return. Most of the time they are prisoners in their own home, besieged by media attention and publicity.

Jeff’s mother, Grandma Vincent, went to live in the cloud forest in Costa Rica well before the abduction. Marlene decides it would be good to get away from the publicity and that Costa Rica might be a place where her children could lead more normal lives. However, some of their problems follow them there, other newer ones reveal themselves.

I like how the reader is privy to the inner working of the individuals. The struggle of each one is well-drawn and the reader pulls, throughout, for them to work through the problems that look insurmountable. This is an intense read, well worth it.

Reviewed by Kaye George author of  Broke for Suspense Magazine