Review by Booklist Review
Twenty years ago, when Erin was twelve, her mother, Gina, disappeared. Erin was devastated; her mom was her soulmate. After Gina vanished, the cops launched what seemed to be a painstaking investigation but found no trace of her. Her airline-pilot dad retired to care for Erin, but despite his presence, Erin's world fell apart, and she spent years hiding her pain, grief, and loss. Years later, after her dad dies, Erin decides to try to discover what happened to her mom. Gina was an artist who never felt her work was good enough to sell or exhibit, so, while she still painted secretly, she expressed her artistic interests by working in an art gallery. Little does Erin suspect that a look into the artistic community will expose merciless criminals, put her life in danger, and uncover her mom's darkest secrets. She also finds closure, a new life, and even love. Light (albeit with some dark moments), fun, and satisfying, this pleasant cozy is Bolger Hyde (Hanging with Hugo, 2024) at her finest.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A reference librarian takes on the research task of a lifetime: unraveling the story of her mother's disappearance. Erin Washington feels that she's been orphaned twice: once at 12, when her mother vanished, and again now that she's 32 and her father's died of cancer. The loss of her father, an airline pilot whose remote parenting style seemed at best attenuated, gives Erin some modest financial resources to take time off and properly explore her earlier loss. Starting in Pacific Grove, California, Erin finds her way to Seafarer's Rest, where her mother stayed a few months after she disappeared. Besides the curiosity and orderly way of thinking Bolger Hyde evidently regards as the natural province of librarians, three strokes of good fortune power Erin on her journey. First, she has a vivid vision of her mother, Gina, staying in a room where she's menaced by a man who means her harm. Second, her mother left a series of notes and postcards that help Erin track her journey northward. Finally, Erin finds someone at each stop who remembers her mother well and can provide information about what Gina might have been thinking and feeling. The result is a highly linear narrative that, despite the massive unlikeliness that anyone would remember a single guest who stayed one or two nights in a resort 20 years ago, packs quite an emotional punch. Erin's yearning to connect with her lost parent makes a case for overlooking the improbability and getting carried along on her trip up the scenic Pacific seacoast. A picturesque picaresque. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
