Cast into Doubt

Starred review from January 24, 2011
MacDonald (From Cradle to Grave) offers a fresh, suspenseful spin on the vacation gone bad crime tale. Shelby Sloan, a well-to-do Philadelphia working woman, gives her daughter, Chloe Kenricks, and Chloe's husband, Rob, a Christmas treat—a Caribbean cruise to make up for the honeymoon the couple never had. Shelby even offers to care for their four-year-old son, Jeremy, while they're gone. Then Shelby receives a disturbing call from Rob, who tells her Chloe has fallen overboard and is missing off St. Thomas. Apparently, Chloe had been drinking. Shelby, unwilling to accept that Chloe had a drinking problem like Estelle Winter, Shelby's dying alcoholic mother, is sure that her daughter met with foul play. Shelby has further cause for alarm when Bud Ridley, a fellow Philly resident who saw Chloe the fateful night, kills himself after she questions him. The author nimbly reveals links to other murders—and to someone desperate to keep a secret. Fans of early Mary Higgins Clark will be rewarded.

January 15, 2011

All the heartache, nightmare and sleuthing you could expect from a mother who sends her daughter off on a cruise she never returns from.

Shelby Sloan has worked herself up to the position of chief buyer of women's apparel at the Philadelphia firm of Markson's. But she still remembers how all-consuming it can be to have children at home when you're struggling to make ends meet. So she gives her daughter Chloe, a physician's receptionist, and her husband Rob Kendricks, the gift of a weeklong Caribbean cruise so that they can concentrate on each other without worrying about their son Jeremy, 4, whom Shelby's volunteered to babysit. Then the unthinkable happens: Rob phones Shelby to say that Chloe has vanished. The assumption is that she fell overboard, but since no one saw her fall, the ship continued on for three hours after she was missed before turning back to look for her, and there's little chance that she'll ever be found, even though Shelby is more than willing to continue the search at her own expense. Investigators reviewing the evidence conclude that Chloe fell while she was drunk, and when Shelby contends that her daughter never drank, they produce abundant evidence that she did indeed. Stung by this revelation, Shelby finds that time doesn't heal these wounds. Prodded by a visit from a representative of Overboard, whose members have lost relatives to suspicious shipboard accidents, she suspects first the cruise line, then Rob, Rob's first wife Lianna Janssen, Chloe's fellow-passenger Bud Ridley, and even her own sister, Dr. Talia Winter, of complicity in Chloe's murder. No wonder she muses: "Maybe I am a crackpot."

So skillful is MacDonald (From Cradle to Grave, 2010, etc.) in stirring the pot that although you never forget how artificial the setup is, you can relax and enjoy the artifice while you wait to find out which of Shelby's paranoid suspicions will end up hitting the mark.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2011

The latest page-turner from MacDonald (Suspicious Origin; From Cradle to Grave) features Shelby Sloan, who raised a daughter on her own and after many difficult years now enjoys a successful career and spending time with her grandson. She purchases a Caribbean cruise as a gift for her daughter, Chloe, and her son-in-law, Rob, offering to babysit Jeremy while they're away. When Rob calls to tell Shelby that Chloe has disappeared from the ship, the nightmare is only beginning. Unable to accept that her daughter might be dead, Shelby keeps digging for the truth and uncovers a number of unhappy secrets that someone would prefer to keep safely hidden. VERDICT MacDonald's tale of domestic suspense will keep readers guessing and is sure to appeal to fans of Mary Higgins Clark and Joy Fielding.--Beth Blakesley, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
When Philadelphia department store buyer Shelby Sloan learns that her daughter, Chloe, is missing from her cruise ship while on vacation, presumed to have gone overboard while drunk, Shelby doesn't buy it. Her daughter doesn't drink, for one thing. Shelby starts her own investigation into her daughter's life, ultimately learning that Chloe kept secrets from her. Taking an extended leave from work, she moves into Chloe's house to comfort her young grandson. She then follows Chloe's secret life while suspecting her son-in-law, Rob, of being involved in her death. Complicating matters, Shelby must deal with a new boss and the possible loss of her job, her mother's deteriorating health due to alcoholism, and Rob's increasingly belligerent attitude toward her living in his house. Fast pacing and numerous plot twists enhance a compelling portrait of a single mother driven to find out what happened to her daughter.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)