“Do you know where your children are?” Remember that haunting television ad? As the parent of a then teenager, it always gave me a chill because I didn’t always know. Kids lie and their friends cover for them. That’s the subtext of this excellent stand-alone novel by Canadian Rick Mofina. Riley Jarrett is missing and no one knows why. Did she run away or was she abducted? All anyone really knows is that she disappeared in one of the largest truck stops in the United States.
The family’s return and the subsequent investigation are the meat of the novel along with the ticking clock. Every mystery lover knows that in an abduction, the more time that passes, the less chance of finding the victim alive. As police fan out, hunting through thousands of clues in the huge park and the nearby desert, Grace, John and Blake all have secrets to hide and information to uncover. There is a twist in the middle that no one will expect and it’s well done.
Emma Weaver is a grad student in history; her MA thesis is a study of the notorious Gaugin family, a socially isolated unit in a rural area of Nova Scotia whose children were taken away 30 years before. Emma’s interest in the Gaugins is far more than intellectual as we discover early on. Just what her connection is and what harm her research may do is part of the discovery that opens the book.
Meanwhile, we are treated to a meticulous and fascinating collection of information that unlocks the plot of the Gaugins and their families. Babcock knows her historiography, and Emma’s search is fascinating as her information comes in bits of paper, old records and memories. After reading this book I googled the Goler family for the gritty background. It’s a story that deserves to be buried. Babcock’s fictional tale uses the same framework, but she has a far more sympathetic eye than the journalists who covered the real tragedy. Read about the Gaugins; let the Golers rest in peace.