Maggie McKenzie has just landed her dream job as a newspaper reporter in California. A small town girl from Idaho, she didn’t think it would ever happen to her, but she won a journalism contest and the prize was this job. Stepping into the newspaper office for the first time, trying to appear confident, she’s surprised when the receptionist drops the phone in shock when she sees her.
It turns out that Mr. Lawson, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, had a daughter kidnapped seven years ago, and Maggie is a dead ringer for that girl. Lily, the receptionist, doesn’t want Mr. Lawson to see Maggie until she’s had a chance to prepare him for the resemblance, so she asks Maggie to go on a road trip and write a series of articles about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. By the time she’s back, Lily will have Mr. Lawson prepared to meet her.
Maggie impulsively asks if she may have copies of the files on Alyssa Lawson’s disappearance, and Lily reluctantly hands them over. Maggie finds leads that geographically correspond with the route she’ll be taking to write her articles, and wants to investigate, but Lily asks her not to mention Alyssa again until she has concrete proof either of her life or her death – Lily can’t take it any more. Maggie agrees and sets off on her road trip.
What she thinks will be a routine investigative search turns into so much more as she realizes that she is being spoken to by Alyssa, receiving mental images of where to find her. Thankfully, when she makes this discovery, she is in the company of Dr. Flynn Ford, a psychologist who has been studying this type of phenomenon. He decides to come with her on the remainder of her journey, and is there when she makes the biggest discovery of all.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The suspense and the romance were very well done, as was the ending scene. (Sigh!) I did feel that the narrative was a bit heavy handed with dates and details from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but it all came out in the wash at the end. The book ends unresolved, and I look forward, very much, to the next book in the Maggie McKenzie series by veteran LDS author Lynn Gardner.
Related Blogs:
Out of the Shadows . . . Into the Light