First published in 2010 by Crown
Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It's a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another's kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows's insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients' lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie's intuitive gift proves useful to the case--and also dangerous.
Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene's disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.
I have read a couple of the later stories that take place in and around The Hollows. I decided it was time to go back to the beginning, Fragile is about The Hollows where secrets are everywhere. Jones and Maggie's son is a troubled youth. When his girlfriend goes missing, suspicion falls on Rick. But the disappearance has similarities to a girl who went missing 30 years before.
I thought this was just OK. For me, the book suffered from too much length, too many points of view and a couple of story lines that really weren't necessary to advance the story. There were just too many people to keep track of in the book. It took too long for all of them to come together to make sense. I also had a hard time finding one likable character in the bunch. There really were no big surprises, so I wouldn't call this a thriller really. I know other people loved this book, so it's probably one of those you have to try for yourself.
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