Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: Dutton / Penguin Putnam
Release Date: Sept. 2003
ISBN: 0525947353
Awards:
Format Reviewed: Hardcover
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Genre: Fiction / psychological suspense
Reviewed: 2003
Reviewer: Barbara Buhrer
Reviewer Notes:

Drifting
By Stephanie Gertler 

     The Inn at Drifting is an eight-room inn in Drifting, Connecticut, overlooking the Atlantic and owned by veterinarian Eli Bishop and his psychologist wife, Claire.  Their daughter, Natalie, has just left for college and Claire is suffering from empty nest syndrome.

     Nicholas Pierce and his blind daughter, 7 year old Kayla, unexpectedly check in. Claire immediately relates to Kayla, remembering her own past. She had been raised by her father Jack Cherney since her mother Sulie deserted them when Claire was two years old.

     Eli, however, feels there is something wrong with the two. Nicholas senses this, and when Eli and Claire leave to fill a prescription for Kayla's eyes, he hurriedly leaves.

     While searching for Kayla and Nicholas, Eli and Claire learn unsettling information about Nicholas and suddenly it becomes a race for to track down Nicholas before he can do any harm to Kayla.

     This is a story of the love between mother and daughter, and of the need for some mothers to find their roots. Claire's emotions over her own mother's abandonment and her forty-five year quest to learn the reasons for that abandonment are thoughtful and insightful. The race against time is suspenseful and terrifying in its implications. The terror and bewilderment of the blind Kayla is touching and Kayla's mother's reaction to her child's disappearance is heart-rending.

     This is a well-written, compelling story not to be missed.

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