Anne's mother is odd, and she knows this. Their life has always been strange, with her mother running off with little or no warning to do her job. Anne has always been told that her mother is a writer, and she believes it. And I'll give Anne this much credit: it makes sense that she would. Too often, a plot like this will drop anvil-sized hints that something is amiss. There are no anvils here. The hints that Anne's life is not all that it seems are just that, hints, and ones that would be so easy for Anne to ignore.The story picks up when Anne's mother doesn't return from one of her interview assignments and things begin to slowly unravel. The tension amps up slowly at this point, until I was reading the last 50 at light speed to see what happened. This was a book I just had to finish in one day, because I couldn't stand to take any longer. It does all end up wrapped up very, very neatly in the end, but the ending did make sense and I felt like it was earned. Maybe not entirely realistic, but it did make sense.
The author did a good job with the characters, in that they felt like real people with at least some sense. Even some of Anne's less intelligent choices made sense for her to make when she made them. And I can't blame a character for doing something that I might do myself.
There were some questions left dangling at the end that I wish hadn't been, but overall this was a very satisfying, quick read.
Cover: The negative photograph is very eye-catching, but I'm not sure what it had to do with the story itself.