On Route 66, as word travels that children's grave sites are being discovered along the road, the parents of missing children form a silent caravan. They are being shepherded by NYPD Detective Kathleen Mallory, who seeks a killer like none she has ever known-and a child unlike the others: herself.
I've been working my way through the entire Kathy Mallory series after a recommendation here on LT, and have to admit that I enjoy them because the characters are so interesting; the mysteries to me are secondary. That said, I am getting a little tired of stories that open somewhere in the middle with characters gradually dropping details throughout the book to flesh out the essential background- it is very frustrating feeling like everyone else knows something you don't (and I don't mean in terms of the clues to solve the mystery, I mean like why Mallory is on Route 66 in a new car being tracked by her partner in the opening paragraphs). Perhaps if I wasn't reading them all so close together, this annoying characteristic of these novels wouldn't be so obvious, but I am so it is.
Still, this is a complex and layered mystery that reveals a lot of interesting details about Mallory's past that help inform her current behaviors, and hold out a hope that there might be shifts coming in her psyche as some old wounds are healed. In the end, I was satisfied with the story and the character development, but all through the read, I was battling irritation at the piecemeal revelation of crucial facts. 3.5 stars.
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