That's Not My Name [Mass Market Paperback]

Yvonne Navarro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2000

A woman abducted.  A frantic husband.  And no one can prove she exists....

One snowy night, in a suburban parking lot, a man finds the quarry he's been stalking for months. And Nola Elidad finds herself imprisoned by a strangely caring kidnapper--who insists she is his lost wife. Soon, he says--when she's no longer sick--she will remember who she is. But Nola knows she isn't the woman he claims...or is she? A nightmare journey is about to begin, propelling her into the shifting shadows of her own memory....

Across town, Nola's husband of three months must admit to Detective Lucas Conroy that he knows nothing of his bride's former life. Nor, it seems, does anyone else--not her boss, not her doctor--or they're not saying. Who is Nola Elidad? Somehow, Conroy must find the answer, even if his search for the missing woman leads him into a dark past haunted by cruelty, subterfuge, and murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Demented with grief and in denial over his wife's death, Jesse Waite stalks and kidnaps Nola Elidad, convinced that she is his dead wife, Stacey. "That's not my name!" becomes Nola's refrain throughout her captivity, but she has unexplained black holes in her memory and begins to believe in this imposed identity. By the time Detective Lucas Conroy tracks her down after three months, Nola's fully convinced that she's Stacey; she's forgotten her husband of three months, Alec, and is pregnant with Jesse's child. Nola's daily musings over her identity crisis take up the bulk of the book (large sections are also devoted to Nola's abusive childhood and Jesse's memories of Stacey's funeral). The plot is tied up in the last 40 pages in an unlikely revelation of past abductions and family secrets. Navarro (Red Shadows) provides romantic subplots about Alec's new love interest and Detective Conroy's budding relationship with a personal trauma cop, but she spends too many pages on Nola and Jesse's daily activities. The plot's intricacies are unsatisfactorily packed into the last part of the book, then quickly resolved in a pat ending. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

A woman abducted.  A frantic husband.  And no one can prove she exists....

One snowy night, in a suburban parking lot, a man finds the quarry he's been stalking for months. And Nola Elidad finds herself imprisoned by a strangely caring kidnapper--who insists she is his lost wife. Soon, he says--when she's no longer sick--she will remember who she is. But Nola knows she isn't the woman he claims...or is she? A nightmare journey is about to begin, propelling her into the shifting shadows of her own memory....

Across town, Nola's husband of three months must admit to Detective Lucas Conroy that he knows nothing of his bride's former life. Nor, it seems, does anyone else--not her boss, not her doctor--or they're not saying. Who is Nola Elidad? Somehow, Conroy must find the answer, even if his search for the missing woman leads him into a dark past haunted by cruelty, subterfuge, and murder.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (June 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553577506
• ISBN-13: 978-0553577501
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,206,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born back in the early days when black and white photographs were considered normal instead of artsy. As a child I always thought I'd grow up to be an artist, and I was was convinced I'd spend my life doing line drawings of long, leggy models like the ones in the daily newspapers. Life, however, did not cooperate: a foul-up in grammar school resulted in a transfer to a local high school instead of the technical, arts-heavy one I'd planned to attend.

Following that was a move that really made things start winding around. By the time I returned to Chicago for the second time in 1981, I'd worked as a waitress, a nurse's aide, a bookkeeper and gift shop cashier, an accounting clerk, and a secretary in everything from office furniture stores to a hotel to a journalism society. In 1981 I came back to my old job in a Chicago law firm and settled down in the Windy City for awhile. In 1982 I tried to write because my mother said "You could do this." The seed had still been planted, and I sold my first story in 1984. Since then I've written around a hundred stories, most of which have been or are scheduled to be published.

My first novel, AfterAge, was published in 1993 and was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. In 1995 my second solo novel, deadrush, was published, and it also was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, this time in the category of Superior Achievement in a novel. Final Impact, the third solo novel, was published in 1997, and won both the Chicago Women In Publishing's Award for Excellence in Adult Fiction and the "Unreal Worlds" Award for Best Horror Paperback of 1997 from the Rocky Mountain News. Since then I've published several more solo novels, Red Shadows (a follow-up to Final Impact), DeadTimes, and That's Not My Name, her first suspense novel. That's Not My Name, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Paleo, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Willow Files, Vol. 2 all won at the Illinois State level of the IWPA 2001 Mate E. Palmer Communications contest (two first place and one second place, respectively), plus I somehow swept all three awards of the Short Story category with "Ascension," "Divine Justice," and "Santa Alma." I've also written a number of media tie-in novels, including several Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels, Hellboy, Elektra, and Ultraviolet. Full info about all her books can be found on her website along with a lot of free excerpts.

I moved to my beloved Arizona in 2002 and currently work on historic Fort Huachuca. in southern Arizona. Numerically, I'm up to about twenty novels and one non-fiction book, with those never-ending plans for more. I love heat, Godiva chocolates, and Great Danes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MOST TWISTED AND SUSPENSEFUL NOVEL BY A MASTER!, June 6, 2000

By 

P. Legerski (Corona, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: That's Not My Name (Mass Market Paperback)

THAT'S NOT MY NAME starts off with a bang...a child is kidnapped. Move forward 15 or so years and another woman is taken from a convenience store. Connected? And if so..how? Navarro introduces to us Jesse Waite, who in a fit of despair and obsession, takes another man's wife thinking she is his own wife, who has been missing the past three months. Jesse then locks Nola in his house and explains to her, through pictures and half-remembered memories, that Nola is really Stacey, Jesse's wife of 4 years. Navarro weaves an interesting scenario and gives out clues throughout the narrative as to what is really going on here.

The author has a tough road ahead, trying to convince the reader that this really could and can happen. The scent of reality permeates this story and is hard to believe this wasn't motivated by a real life occurence. The characters are completely three dimensional, their motivations realistic and the dialogue crisp. We are introduced to a dedicated cop, Nola's husband and a host of whacked out relatives of Stacey's. These people help push along the story and never let it drag on.

The last 1/4 of this novel has such an astonishing number of revelations, some that I figured out but others that were just shocking. Navarro has written a mystery/suspense novel that will keep you guessing long into the night. Get comfortable when you start this one, you will be there for a long, fulfilling ride with a talented writer who delivers in a big way.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard to believe but a good read, October 11, 2000

By 

Suzanne Vitale "jackeroophillip" (Bowling Green, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: That's Not My Name (Mass Market Paperback)

In That's Not My Name, Jesse Waite, believing that his wife has died a sudden death after loosing a baby, wanders into a carnival and suddenly spots a young woman who "is" his wife. He follows her for days and finally approaches her pulling her into his car to take her home where she belongs. He thinks her name is Stacey Waite; she thinks her name is Nola Elidad. Nola's husband of three months is distraught over her disappearance, but knows very little about her when he tries to tell the police about his new wife. It begins to look like story about a multiple personality when Nola/Stacey's memories begin to surface;however, a surprise development of another actual person turns the book into a real suspense that is hard to put down until the last detail surfaces.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent suspense/mystery!, August 10, 2000

By 

Alexia (Northern NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: That's Not My Name (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of those books where you keep promising yourself "just one more chapter" before you go to bed. Suddenly, it's two in the morning and you've just-one-more-chaptered until you've finished the book! It's that good!

This story is fast-paced, full of detail and has a healthy dose of reality. I especially liked the italicized flashbacks interwoven throughout the story, which both gave clues to what was happening and filled us in on background.

Usually, you can guess the twist in suspense novels, which takes some of the fun out of them. Although I did guess one twist part way through the book, the ending took me totally by surprise! I cannot recommend this book highly enough!