And now we are back to old Caudill Nominees. This one was a nominee in 1996. I might recommend it to reluctant readers who would enjoy a mystery and particularly to the more sensitive boys - boys with a strong sense of family who love their sisters. I am thinking that kids, who gravitate towards The Face on the Milk Carton type of book, will enjoy this one as well.
I will put this book in the same category as My Sister’s Keeper and the one I mentioned above. I am not entirely certain what it is about these books, but the kids flock to them. They are highly emotional and they involve a significant crime against self – a believable one. A crime that could actually happen and is both devastating and frightening. In this case, a kidnapping. Perhaps they can enjoy the terror in the safety of their own home.
When this book begins, the family has already suffered the monumental loss of a loved one. Chris’s much younger sister, Molly, has been missing and presumed dead for a few months. The family has kept a summer vacation home for years. The family picnics on the beach that resides along a river. This last summer, Molly disappeared while Chris and his parents dozed off after lunch. After much searching, the family, friends and authorities came to the conclusion that Molly fell into the river and was swept away in the strong currents. She drowned.
The family, now three, is returning to the scene at the urging of their psychiatrist. They are to face their ghosts – fears and failings – in order to move forward as a family. Chris’s parents no longer speak to each other. It is probably for the same reason, guilt, that Chris is having trouble continuing forward. Chris wishes he had invited his sister along with him to videotape the flora and fauna of the beach. She would have been safe. OR. If his father would have stayed awake and kept watch, Molly would still be here.
After returning once more from the scene of Molly’s disappearance, the family congregates in front of the TV to put behind them one more piece of the past – the video that was taken this summer. It includes Chris’s mother exiting a restroom, an annual and forever embarrassing catch. It also includes what Chris taped directly before everyone dozed. It is not something any of the members of the family wish to do, but again, it is advised by the psychiatrist. Chris invites his best friend, Pat, for support.
Chris’s parents fall asleep before it finishes and Pat leaves as soon as it is over. But Chris continues to think about what he has seen and goes to bed with an idea nagging at the corner of his mind. He dreams dreams that won’t let him sleep. He is compelled to watch the video again. It is not so much something he has seen as something he has heard, rather, not heard.
While he was taping, the camera caught the ice cream truck entering the parking lot. The ice cream truck at the beach is not unusual, but it wasn’t playing its music and it didn’t stay for long. Chris recalls that the driver of the ice cream truck had whispered in his sister’s ear – on camera – earlier at the ice cream shop. This sparks the memory that later he asked his sister what the driver had whispered. Molly told Chris, “It’s a secret.”
Chris now has a hope that perhaps his sister IS missing, but no long presumed dead. With Pat at his side, they set out alone to discover the truth.
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