LOOK AGAIN by Lisa Scottoline
LOOK AGAIN by Lisa Scottoline is one of the most horrific, emotionally searing novels I have read in some time. In this age of “missing children” it takes this situation and throws it up against the risks of adoption to create a parent’s worst nightmare. In this story your head will tell you how the book should end, but your heart will give it an alternate ending.
Ellen Gleeson lives in Philadelphia where she works as a features reporter for the local newspaper. She is the single mother of Will who is three and a half. She adopted him after doing a story on a tiny boy in the hospital with a heart murmur. She was drawn to him from the time she saw him and when she learned his mother was willing to let him be adopted she went for it. Now recovered from his illnesses he is a happy, healthy boy.
Then one day Ellen gets a flyer in with her mail. It shows the picture of a kidnapped and missing boy who is almost the exact same age as Will. He also looks very much like Will. So much so that Ellen can not just ignore it. She begins to look into the circumstances of Timothy Braverman’s disappearance and that is when her world begins to fall apart.
Ellen’s quandary is the soul of the book. Her gut reaction to Timothy’s picture and the circumstances of his kidnapping is that he and Will are the same child. Still how far should she go to prove it, and if she does prove it to be true should she be willing to give up her son? These are the issues she faces and they are not easy ones.
Her basic maternal instinct says she should not let anyone know her suspicions and she should keep Will safe and protected.. Her conscience however tells her that her gain of a son should not be predicated on some other mother’s horror. She is torn and any decision she makes will be a painful one for her and Will.
Scottoline writes this story so passionately that we feel Ellen’s pain in every word. The relationship between her and Will is fully described and the intensity of their shared love is wonderful to observe. If Ellen was less of a person and less of a mother then the issues the circumstances raise would not be as difficult for her.
It is also to Scottoline’s credit that the twists and turns Ellen’s life takes are easy to absorb and though baffling are in the long run credible. From one page to the next you are never sure just where this story is going to end. The readers’ emotions will go from exhilaration to despair and back again many, many times.
LOOK AGAIN is truly a “can’t put down novel.” You will be drawn to the pages of this book from the opening words to the very final ones. Lisa Scottoline has written many intriguing and interesting books in the past but this is the BIG one. This is the one that defines her as a first rate author.
LOOK AGAIN is published by St Martin’s Press. It contains 341 pages and sells for $26.95.