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And then there was one Reviewed By Lavanya Karthik of Bookpleasures.com
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Lavanya Karthik

Reviewer Lavanya Karthik: Lavanya is from Mumbai, India and is a licensed architect and consultant in environmental management. She lives in Mumbai with her husband and six-year old daughter. She loves reading and enjoys a diverse range of authors across genres.



 
By Lavanya Karthik
Published on October 6, 2010
 

Author: Patricia Gussin
Oceanview Publishing
ISBN 978-1-933515-81-6


Author: Patricia Gussin
Oceanview Publishing
ISBN 978-1-933515-81-6

Click Here To Purchase And Then There Was One

Katie and Scott Monroe have it all- good looks, wealth, a loving inter-racial marriage, supportive family, great careers and, best of all, triplet daughters.  All of which make them, as any reader of whodunits knows, the perfect targets for a heinous crime.  Sure enough, a routine trip to the movies ends in tragedy, as two of the girls simply disappear from a dark theatre.

What follows is a tense, week long investigation in full media glare (with even President Obama and his family making an appearance of sorts), as the FBI fumble for leads. Innumerable suspects crop up, as do secrets from the couples’ past. Parallels drawn to the infamous Madeleine McCann case  even  have us looking askance at the grieving parents. Meanwhile, the Monroe marriage threatens to buckle under the strain, even as the ‘lucky’ triplet succumbs to survivor’s guilt. And all the while, time is running out for the two lost girls.

Author Gussin writes with energy and does a great job peopling this book with characters in every shade of grey.  Right from page one, when the reader finds herself thrown headlong into the middle of the  crisis, she sets a pace to the plot  that stays unrelentingly on course as it hurtles toward the finish line.   Red herrings abound and, while not always tied up satisfactorily (the  Jane Wise subplot, for instance) , certainly keep the reader intrigued. 

This is also a book that pays attention to detail - the news headlines that precede each chapter, subtly setting the stage for each new plot twist; the mental conflicts that plague its  characters; the little differences that set the triplets apart.  Gussin really gets into the heads of her characters, examining their thoughts and actions with a keen eye and skilled hand - I actually found myself empathizing with the kidnapper! However, I did have difficulty believing in the power this character had over the two girls who, despite being described as spunky, smart and athletic  - and with a psychiatrist mother  well aware of the ploys child abusers use to trap victims - allow themselves to be led into captivity and never once attempt to jointly overpower their captor. This aspect of the plot demanded more attention. Another glaring oversight  that rankled – the ages of the characters Spanky, Jessica and Jennifer seem to randomly change through the latter half of the book.

The book also falters is in its climax, with an end that peters out, doing little justice to the crackling pace that precedes it, or the truly disturbing villain it offers up.  In all other aspects, And Then There Was One keeps  the crime fiction buff in that most irresistible of places – on the edge of her seat.

Click Here To Purchase And Then There Was One