"exciting romantic suspense"

In Chicago Heights, Johnny Dunn dies in a boating accident. A year later his grieving widow Amy Wainscott, CEO of a construction company, decides to spend more time with her five-year-old son Charles. She fires Charles' nanny, Kathy Stead, who frightens her with her obsessive behavior towards her son. A few weeks later, someone abducts Charles from an amusement park.

Amy hires Denver based private detective Brad Dorchester to find her son, who she feels his former nanny kidnapped. However, Amy also works the field seeking anyone who looks like Kathy. Using the name Amy Wayne in Lawrence, Michigan, she feels she is closing in on Kathy and consequently Charles. As she nears her target, Amy worries whether her boy will remember her and even if he does will he feel she abandoned him when she finally catches up with them?

This is an exciting romantic suspense that focuses on one mother's worse nightmare, the abduction of a child. The metamorphosis of Amy from CEO to hunter feels genuine because in either position she seems like she suffers from obsessive behavior syndrome (call me Dr. Harriet). A final twist will surprise readers, but seems out of character, as the groundwork of that relationship never emerged in the plot. Still fans will travel the road until the end as this thriller never eases off the throttle until the climax is done.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 24, 2003

Summary

There are some things Only a mother can feel...
At one time, Amy Wainscoat had it all -- wealth, control of her family's Chicago business, a Handsome and loving husband, a child she adored. But her husband was killed in a boating accident a year ago. And now, most devastating of all, five-year-old Charles has been kidnapped, apparently by the nanny she'd recently fired.

Despite the involvement of the police and the FBI, despite the fact that she'd hired one of the best private investigators around, Amy's determined to be part of the search.

There are some things only a mother can do...
When Charles and his ex-nanny are spotted in Michigan, Amy drives across the state, following every conceivable lead, following each road to its end. As she and her detective grow close, their shared quest engenders an intimacy that's more real than anything except her love for Charles.

Then, one day, the search is over. And what they find shocks Amy as nothing has ever shocked her before.