{Synopsis} – The search for a missing baby drives this heart-pounding page turner, from Edgar Award Winner Susan Shreve (LUCY FOREVER AND MISS ROSETREE, SHRINKS).
It was just a few minutes. Stuck in a hotel room babysitting while the rest of her family celebrated downstairs in the hotel, Jess thought she'd try on her sister's wedding dress in the large bathroom while the baby slept. But when Jess opens the door again the baby is gone. Fighting guilt and terror, Jess and her kleptomaniac sister Teddy evade the swirl of police and hotel staff in their own desperate effort to get Baby Ruby back before it's too late.
{My thoughts} – Jess is the youngest of the O’fines family. She is the save-the marriage-baby. She is the most compliant. She does what she’s asked and told, she doesn’t argue and just accepts everything at face value. She is extremely close to her her sister Teddy. Teddy is non-compliant when it comes to rules and laws. She has a compulsion to steal things, no matter the consequence. She is the complete and utter opposite of teddy and that helps to bring the two sisters closer then ever, they are thick as blood and in the case of this book it is a good quality for the sisters to share with one another.
Jess is left to babysit her baby niece, while everyone else attends the rehearsal dinner for her older sisters wedding. Jess was suppose to go but then her older brother Danny messed up getting a sitter and she was asked/ told she was to be the one to babysit. She was given explicit directions not to take her eyes off the baby, but she was moping and did just that. She took her her eyes off the baby and because of that someone had managed to kidnap the baby.
When Jess and Teddy where younger before all the shoplifting had started they would play a game where they were detectives and would solve some terrible crimes that happened in their house. This was part of their sister bonding. It helped them to keep things together for awhile for the girls while they tried to work through all the bad that had been happening in their home lives, all the change that they weren’t able to fully deal with at the current time in their lives, a way to work through all the good and bad coming their ways.
It was because of this game they played when they were younger that Jess was able to piece together what had taken place when the baby went missing – she was able to make sense of what happened. She paid attention to the little details and was able to recall them enough to help her sort things out in her head.
This book is a well written mystery and was a very enjoyable read. I really hope that in time my daughter will read these kinds of books, because they help to keep the mind wondering. They help to keep you thinking and on your feet and they help you to use your imagination in the best possible ways. I believe that if any child enjoys cartoons like scooby-doo, they can get into books like these, they just need to be given a little push. Right now my daughter is mostly interested in fairytales and humor type books, but in time I hope she will expand and become more interested in other genres. It is for this reason alone I keep so many different kinds of books on hand for her to be able to read. Who knows, maybe the boys will read and like these kinds of books too, very soon!
Final Conclusion: 5 Star Rating.
