Susan Haynes has totally repressed the first eighteen years of her life, remembering nothing. Now under psychiatric care, she suffers blinding headaches, which are apparently connected to the repression. Although painful, Susan lives a fairly normal life until the day she crawls out of bed suffering from a headache to pick up her four-year-old son, Timmy, at day care.

Daycare administrators are stunned to see her because they claim Susan picked up her son hours ago. Susan calls her husband Jeff and then the police to report the kidnapping and her life continues to worsen.

Since eye-witnesses identify Susan as the person who picked Timmy up, suspicion immediately focuses on her. Her mysterious past and psychiatric care add to their suspicion. Desertion comes quickly. First neighbors and acquaintances, then her employer, and then her husband all believe she is involved in Timmy's disappearance.

Even after clearing a polygraph test, the only person who seems to believe her is the investigating police detective, but the DA is still threatening to indict Susan. Feeling that the key to Timmy's disappearance is in her past, Susan returns to her hometown to investigate.

If this book were twice as long, the author might have had the time to develop her characters, add descriptions that anchor the story in time and place and do all those other details which draw a reader into the story. As it is, the reader is merely a bystander as the plot unfolds in flashbacks and narratives. The only character that has any dimension at all is Susan.

There are technical flaws that could have been avoided with research. Equally disconcerting is the rapidity with which all the loose ends are wrapped up in one scene. But if you do not mind suspending disbelief on almost every level, this plot line may be different enough to appeal.

--Thea Davis