Review by Booklist Review
Ever since her best friend, Jennifer, disappeared on the night of their high-school graduation, Kathryn Campbell's life has been one long guilt trip. Could she have prevented Jennifer's disappearance? Kathryn's lingering obsession has resulted in a restless dissatisfaction with life and a failed marriage. Returning home to Maine leads to an assignment that injects Kathryn with new energy: she is to write a feature story about Jennifer's disappearance from the point of view of the victim's best friend. As Kathryn interviews Jennifer's friends and family for background, she realizes the idealized picture of Jennifer she held in her head was a far cry from reality and that her friend's disappearance was more sinister, dark, and complex than Kathryn could ever guess. A dark, sensual, emotionally charged, highly suspenseful thriller that probes the bleaker side of the human psyche and explores the nature of conflict, trust, passion, and obsession, this gripping story is a must-read. --Emily Melton
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The author of Sweet Water offers a taut, absorbing novel about a woman who must solve a haunting mystery in order to move on with her life. Kathryn Campbell has been in emotional limbo since the mysterious disappearance of her best friend, Jennifer, on the night of their 1986 high-school graduation. A decade later, she finds herself returning to their hometown of Bangor, Maineeven though, with a failed marriage under her belt and a journalism career idling in neutral, moving back in with her (also divorced) mother is probably not the best way to boost her self-esteem. So when a friend asks Kathryn to write a newspaper story about Jennifer, Kathryn reluctantly agrees. Since Kathryn's return coincides with her class's reunion, she has ample opportunity to interview the four former companions who were with Jennifer on that fateful night, as well as others who might have played a hand in Jennifer's baffling disappearance. As Kathryn delves into her best friend's background, unnerving facts about the seemingly golden girl start to emerge, and soon it is obvious that someone is trying to thwart her investigation. The mystery of why Jennifer vanished becomes even more puzzling as new facts come to light, and Kathryn's eventual insight that some ambiguities are part of life brings depth to the narrative. Kline's edge-of-the-seat denouement ties up the plot threads with dexterity and also allows for a plausible future for Kathryn herself. Agent, Beth Vesel for Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Author tour. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Grieving over her recent divorce, Kathryn Campbell quits her newspaper job and moves back to small-town Maine in time for her ten-year high school reunion. It's also the anniversary of her best friend Jennifer's mysterious disappearancedespite years of searching, only a few meager clues have surfaced. When former classmate Jack Ledbetter, assistant news editor for the Bangor Daily News, asks Kathryn to follow up on the story, she faces her toughest journalistic assignment to date. Linking the disparate events that led up to that fateful night may be Kathryn's last chance to overcome the deep guilt she feels for somehow failing her friend. When she starts receiving threatening messages, Kathryn realizes that Jennifer may truly be dead and that she may be next. Kline (Sweet Water, LJ 5/15/93) creates an intriguing and suspenseful novel of self-discovery as Kathryn confronts old friends with long-held secrets. For all fiction collections.Christine Perkins, Jackson Cty. Lib. Svcs., Medford, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A high-school reunion dredges up more than fond memories and embarrassing photos in Klines (Sweet Water, 1993) sharp portrait of a mid-youth crisis. Kathryn Campbell, like most people in their 20s, doesnt go back to her parents home without a good reason. In her case its divorce from husband Paul, whom she left not from anger or hurt so much as sadness, an inexplicable depression that just grew worse over their years together: In the end it was easier to let go of the marriage than let go of the melancholy that grew slowly inside her like a tumor, obliterating everything else. As it happens, however, she arrives back at her childhood home in Maine the very month that her high-school class is having its tenth reunion. Well, sometimes the fire is better than the frying pan, if it gets you moving. You see, the night before their graduation, Kathryns best friend Jennifer left a party earlyand has never been heard from since. Could this be the unresolved loss? Kathryn decides to put her newspaper reporters instincts on the job, and she starts asking all her old classmates precisely those questions they thought they had answered ten years back. Things have changed, but not beyond recognition: heartthrob Will, the class president and Jennifers old boyfriend, has come out of the closet; Rachel, the intellectual Jew, is now a college professor; and party-boy Jack is a journalist just like Kathryn. The two team up and start following whatever leads they can revive, some taking them in the direction of the creepy Mr. Hunter, Jennifers old teacher. Can the past ever be put to rest? Or is that an unhealthy question in itself? Kathryn means to find out. Uninspired but passably engaging: Kline spends way too much time setting up the board, but she knows how to play her pieces. Next time out, she should cut straight to the chase.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
