Lisa Tucker's (The Song Reader) latest novel focuses on "helicopter parents" (they hover) Kyra and David Winter, whose seven-year-old son is kidnapped. A note left behind claims that Michael's abductor loves him and won't harm him. While this is cold comfort, Tucker tempers the family's devastation with descriptions of the Winters' smothering control over their son. Michael is home schooled just in case he might encounter a bully; he's not permitted playmates because they could carry germs; and Legos are forbidden as a potential choke hazard. While it's clear that the Winters adore their son, they are so neurotically overprotective that you can't help but feel a twinge of satisfaction when his mysterious kidnapper takes the sheltered kid whale watching and lets him eat a candy bar.
Kyra and David carry traumatic baggage of their own. This isn't David's first marriage or child, and Kyra is weighed down with guilt about her once-beloved sister. Is David's crazy ex-wife the culprit or has the sister that Kyra betrayed finally come to seek her revenge?
Tucker is a master chef of character development and living with heartbreak. This work examines the fallible side of human nature, creating characters so achingly real that at times you forget you're reading a work of fiction. As the book reaches its suspenseful climax, Tucker's message resonates: ultimately all human error can be conquered by forgiveness. --Natalie Papailiou, blogger at MILF: Mother I'd Like to Friend