Ask the Dark by Henry Turner

This mystery is set in the south.  We know this by the dialect spoken by main character Billy Zeets.
The dialect slows the story down.  Without it this could be an ALA quick pick.  Billy prefers wandering around late at night to school.  He's had a few run ins with the law as a result, but nothing major.  His mother passed a couple of years earlier.  His father was a house painter and was injured so is on disability.  His sister is not especially school or work oriented.  She has a boyfriend, not known to have a good reputation.  It looks as if the family will lose the house.  Billy starts working anyway he can to get enough to save the house, an impossible task.  So, he is mowing yards, helping with local deliveries, doing other odd jobs.  While he is working local boys begin disappearing.  One turns up dead as two more go missing.  At school Billy was tormented constantly, now one of his tormentors has gone missing.  Billy did not really intend to investigate the disappearances even though the reward money would bail the family out.  He just was out and about so much he began to put together things he saw, ask a few questions, then in a brave if fool hardy move checks out his theory and gets taken himself.  The story resolves very satisfactorily.  I enjoyed it.
jdw 5.4.15

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

All Britt wanted to do was have a great spring break hiking in the mountains with her best friend Korbie and forget about her break-up with Calvin. When she learns that Calvin is going on the trip as a chaperone - since he’s Korbie’s older brother - she’s torn between making him pay for breaking her heart and considering a reconciliation. Before they make it to their cabin in the mountains, however, they are hit by a massive blizzard and forced to abandon their car on the side of the road. Britt and Korbie manage to find shelter with two hikers, but it’s not the salvation they’d been hoping for. Shaun and Mason need to get off the mountain, and Britt is the one to help them. She knows that they’re hiding something, and she slowly begins to realize that they might be connected to the disappearances and deaths of three women in these mountains. Now all she cares about is her own survival and the hope that resourceful Calvin would come to her rescue. It doesn’t help her situation when one of her kidnappers turns out to be the opposite of what she things. Can she trust him or not?

This novel is a romantic suspense novel. Given the whole hostage situation, that makes it a little bit of a Stockholm Syndrome novel, although I think that there is some degree of truth behind her feelings for one of the kidnappers. He does genuinely help her throughout the novel and extreme situations do tend to lead to extreme feelings (at least that’s what seems to happen in novels). Whether or not a relationship between them would work in the real world, it makes for entertaining fiction. In terms of the suspense, I figured it out halfway through the novel, but I’ve been accused of thinking too much when I read, so maybe the big reveal will be more surprising for another reader. Even knowing what was going to happen, the novel was still enjoyable. There are enough turns in their journey to keep things interesting and the reader wondering how they’ll get out of this situation.

Overall, this was a satisfying novel. There’s enough to keep you going to the end as you hope everything works out for these characters and justice is served.

MMK

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

This novel reminded me of Homecoming by Voigt, Pictures of Hollis Woods by Giff and half dozen stories about young people abandoned or stolen by mentally unstable folks.  Carey has been told for some 10 years that she was taken to the trailer with no running water, no heat, no electricity because her father abused her.  She didn't know any other story so she believed it must be true.  But, mom had a string of scarey men visiting her, mom left her and later her little sister too alone for weeks at a time.  So a man she doesn't know and a woman called a social worker show up at the trailer in the deep woods of Tennessee.  They show her a letter from mom to the social worker saying she cannot take care of the girls and please go take care of them.  Carey and little sister Jessica suddenly find themselves experiencing things Carey can't remember and Jessica has never experienced, things like electricity, bubble baths, pajamas and more.  Jessica has selective mutism.  Jessica seems to be nobody's child except Carey's.  On that basis she stays with the family with whom the girls are placed and cared for and adjusts quite well.  Carey is narrating the story.  She has secrets she both needs to tell and needs to keep.  Slowly over time, her and Jessica's story of horrific deprivation, abuse and more come out.  There is a three legged dog that takes to Jessica and Carey and helps to ease their transition that is quite important to the story.  I want folks to know since it also takes some of the horror for the reader who likes pets.  I've always taken to "rescuing kids from bad situations" stories quickly and this one is no exception.  Recommend.

Little Girl Gone by Drusilla Campbell

This is an adult book with lots of teen appeal, especially since the three girls in Cleveland escaped from their mentally off kidnapper.
Willis has a mission to keep wayward teen girls safe from being murdered.  To that end, first he takes Madora to an abandoned house in the mountains of Arizona then several years later shows up with a pregnant teen girl he handcuffs and keeps prisoner in a run down trailer behind the house. 
 
Madora, now in her early twenties was a confused, grieving teen who had lost her father to suicide when Willis took her from a party while she was very drunk.  Madora believes he loves her and she loves him.  But reality appears to be different, she seems a slave to his every wish.  Linda was begging for food at the edge of a highway when Willis picked her up and imprisoned her.  She is very clear eyed as to what kind of a creep Willis is. 
 
Willis, a high school drop out and a veteran trained as a medic, believes it is his right to be a doctor like his father.  He ekes out a living as a caretaker for elderly folks.  He says they like him and give him gifts. He also works as a sometimes orderly.  He does not allow Madora to work saying she has to care for the tied up Linda. When he takes on another patient, he crosses paths with Django who recently moved in with his aunt after the tragic deaths of his parents. 
 
Django is determined not to go back to the new school where students rejected him on the first day.  He has seen what a creep Willis is and decides to investigate where he lives.  This brings Django in contact with lonely Madora and a stray pit bull puppy named foo that she cares for and about. 
 
On a day when nothing goes right for Willis, he loses his temper and beats Madora up.
Django had already put ideas in her head about escaping and setting Linda free.  This is the turning point of the story.  Lives unravel and reassemble rather differently than they were before.  Madora has hope for a future, Django helps her a lot.  He and his aunt forge a friendship.  We do not really know what happens to Linda.  We do know that Willis had had his eyes on yet another teen girl to kidnap but instead is spending time in prison.
 
I think Jody Picoult fans may like this one.  Its a quick, easy read with a controversial subject that really held my attention.  Absolutely read this!
JDW 8/13

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

This novel, while lyrical in its imagery and metaphors, failed to keep my attention. In fact, I felt as much of a hostage in this book as the main character.

Gemma is writing a letter to her kidnapper, recounting their time together when he kidnapped her in the Bangkok airport. Ty - her kidnapper - took her to a remote area in the Australian Outback where he hopes to keep her forever. She fights him as you would expect and tries to escape despite the fact that they are in the middle of nowhere. He never hurts her but she still fears at different times he's going to kill her. At one point they catch a camel which is (as I read in another review and agree with) a metaphor for how Gemma is caught and held as a hostage. Ty tries to win Gemma over and she tries to fight the situation until the land which she's falling in love with bites her in the foot and shifts the story.

When I picked up this book, I expected there to be more too it. Initally I thought there would be more meat - like sex trade or abuse - but really it's just a book about a girl who was kidnapped. I felt like nothing happened - at least nothing of consequence. Believe it or not, I wanted him to beat her or do something extreme just so I could experience some sort of emotional respone to the book. The escapes held a bit of fun and the camel capture was okay but the most exciting part was when she got bit by the snake but even that dragged on too long. This book seriously lacked the hook to keep me coming back. From what I read in other reviews, this book tries to be poetic with metaphors and imagery - WAY too much time was spent on the land. However, I think few readers pick up books looking for that. I think the vast majority - including myself - read to be entertained without much thought. I don't always pick up on the deeper meanings and hidden metaphors because I'm reading a story, that's all. I want things happening in a steady flow with excitement that keeps me coming back - this book did not have it and I think it will lose a lot of readers before they even make it halfway through for that very reason. (I, sadly, have a condition where it's nearly impossible for me to give up on books and forced myself to finish this book with a lot of complaining along the way). One thing that irked me about the book - besides its lack of anything really interesting going on - was how easy it was for Stockholm Syndrome to take effect. One minute she hates him, the next their snuggling in the sand. COME ON!!! I did like how the story was written as a letter. I found the style interesting and I did come to sympathize with Ty but I needed more out of the book.

If you like books with beautiful imagery and deeper meanings, pick up this book. If you want an interesting story that's going to keep you coming back for more, skip this book.
MMK