(17)The Daughter by Jane Shemilt

Saturday, March 7, 2015


Jenny's life is busy, but fulfilling.  She is the mother of three teenagers, wife to a surgeon, and a family doctor herself. Her ordinarily average life is disrupted when fifteen year old Naomi doesn't come home from an evening performance of the school play.  Naomi's disappearance rocks the family and brings to light all sorts of family drama that was festering below the surface.  Drug abuse, infidelity, and more.   But that doesn't answer the question - where is Naomi?

The Daughter is told in an interesting timeline.  The days leading up to and the days after Naomi's disappearance and then ten months after the disappearance when the family has shattered into a million little pieces.   Jenny has moved to their summer house, leaving her husband at home.   The twins, Theo and Ed, have scattered.    But Jenny is still feels empty without knowing what happened to Naomi and is willing to got to any lengths to find out what happened to her daughter.

The Daughter was a captivating read.  Watching this family implode was heartbreaking, yet captivating.  As each secret was revealed it seemed like this family hardly knew each other at all.    I think Jenny was shattered the most by Naomi's disappearance.  She was so confident that she knew everything there was to know about her daughter and obviously that wasn't true. I also found her relationship with the detective, Micheal, interesting.  I was satisfied with the ending, but it did leave a few unanswered questions for me.  Or else I missed something along the way.

Bottom line, The Daughter was a good read. I was sucked in by this dysfunctional family and I didn't want to stop reading until the truth had been revealed.  Isn't that always a good hallmark of a good book?

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