M.I.A.

M.I.A. (Novel/Susp-Rhiann Fahey-Illinois-Cont) - VG+ Dymmoch, Michael Allen - Standalone Thomas Dunne Books, 2008, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312373719 First sentence: My dad died the spring I was seventeen. Rhiann Fahey's state policeman husband was recently killed in an accident. Her 17-year-old son, Jimmy, is having a hard time dealing with his father's death. Her new neighbor, John, seems to be helping Jimmy. Town policeman, Rory Sinter, even though married, makes Rhinna uncomfortable with his stops by and suggestive attitude which soon becomes threatening. Dymmoch is an author who deserves a much wider readership. It is a story of friendship, survival, love and violence. The story is told from the perspective of each of the three primary characters and Dymmoch has given each a distinctive voice, as well as identifying them by chapter heading. Each of the characters is wonderful as is the relationship between them. You see them transform as the story progresses. It is a wonderful story; a woman recovering from the death of her husband now trying to rebuild her life, a man whose life had been surrounded by violence transforming himself and looking for love, a young man growing up, and obsessed man degrade to violence. The book is more a novel than a mystery but there is a question as to the identity of one of the characters and the suspense is very well done right up to the very end. I highly recommend this, and all of Ms. Dymmoch's books.

I won't go into a detailed synopsis of the plot; that is easy to find in another review on this site. What I will do is tell you that Dymmoch has, once again, written a book well worth reading. The plot is very good, believable, could happen to you or yours. The characters are strong; these are people I can see in my own life, whose actions I find convincing. This is more a novel of suspense than of mystery - is John Devlin a good guy or a bad guy? Are his intentions good or bad? One does know the answer by the end of the book, and yet not until the very end. If I have any beef at all with M.I.A., it's that the ending is too tidy and life isn't always that way. But once in a while, things do work out and so even that is a very minor beef...certainly not one that would keep me from recommending this book to those who want something more than a bit-o-fluff in their hands.

Only a few months have past since Rhiann's husband Mickey died and it is unsurprising that she still grieves her loss. Her sixteen year old son Jimmy by her first husband Billy wants to know more about his paternal grandparents the Wildings. Rhiann had nothing to do with them since they treated her with disdain. Jimmy finds some letters and decides to visit them. Jimmy meets Beth and falls hard for the girl who is the same age as he is. They hide their relationship because her father would be furious. When he spends the weekend with Beth, Rhiann accepts this. Besides she has her own problems to confront including a police officer stalking her and a new neighbor John Devlin interested in her. Unknown to Rhiann, John has a secret agenda in which he hides his true identify from Rhiann as he knows the impact will prove devastating to her, Jimmy and Beth's dad. Secrets that have been hidden for years surface with each character coping differently to the revelations. Interestingly, since the stalker is a cop his peers reject Rhiann's accusations. Rotating points of view enables the audience to know what motivates the prime players, but also somewhat slows down the pace of a suspense laden family drama filled with plausible surprising twists as one shocker after another is revealed. Harriet Klausner