Ruth begins to encounter people and familiar feelings from her past, along with two friends from Alex’s present, Keith and Liz. Keith is Alex’s current lover who has just returned from Australia unaware of Alex’s disappearance. Liz is a teacher at Alex’s school with whom he has developed a close friendship. Both are just as concerned as Ruth about Alex’s disappearance, but neither have the strange experiences Ruth encounters while searching for Alex.

Ruth finds the strangest thing of all is that all roads appear to lead back to Matt, though she can’t imagine what her abusive ex-boyfriend has to do with the disappearance of her beloved brother. Little by little, Ruth is drawn deeper and deeper in to a web (complete with spiders) that she isn’t sure she will ever be able to escape from.

The Lonely Places is a very disturbing suspense novel, as Ruth is faced with many of the demons of her past on the road to a secure future. Ruth gets the feeling, as will the reader, that the answers are right in front of her if she can just put the pieces into proper order. Ruth is a hard character to figure out, as she is strong enough to get out of an abusive relationship, yet seems to be able to continue on with her life when faced with the disappearance of her brother. Matt and the other characters are not delved into, and behave as expected.

There is a dream-like quality to J.M. Morris’s writing and descriptions of Greenwell, adding to the overall atmosphere of the novel. While the epilogue serves to tie up loose endings and confirm suspicions, much of it reiterates the obvious, and it ends rather abruptly, leaving even more questions than it answered. There are some scenes in the book that some readers may find disturbing, including a lesbian sexual encounter between teenagers. Overall, the book is very gripping and will hold readers’ attention, if for no other reason than the annoying feeling of not being able to figure out what is really going on.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry