First published last year in the U.K. under the title Silent Playgrounds, British author Reah's unsettling and somewhat creepy psychological thriller explores the extent to which one child's fantasies prove frighteningly real. The story opens with the police search for missing six-year-old Lucy Fielding and her babysitter, Emma, in a neighborhood park in Sheffield, England. Lucy's mother, Jane, and Jane's best friend, Suzanne Milner, are frantic until Lucy is found safe in nearby woods. Emma is not as lucky her dead body is discovered in an abandoned section of the park. Lucy, a stoic child with a vivid imagination, explains that there are monsters in the park, yet no one takes the child seriously except Suzanne, and an investigation ensues. Suzanne, a research academic who works with delinquent teens, had been jogging in the park the morning of the murder and thinks she saw one of the teens she counsels hanging around the crime scene. As she works alongside the police and gives credence to Lucy's drawing and stories, the killer closes in on her. When a second body is found and a seedy student drug ring is uncovered, Suzanne realizes that the delinquent teens she researches are not just guilty of petty crime but may be involved in much more sinister and complex activities. This atmospheric thriller starts off with potentially interesting characters and good pacing, but languishes toward the middle with little fresh action to tide the reader over until the puzzling and unexpected ending. The meticulously detailed suburban English setting and Reah's literary touch will appeal to those who appreciate a more sophisticated and subdued suspense tale, but readership on this side of the Atlantic will be limited.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From Booklist
Why is it that those who analyze others are so often haunted by demons of their own? Perhaps it's the empathy they feel for their patients, or, more likely, it's their way of escaping their own troubled pasts. Suzanne Milner, a student specializing in treating troubled children, is one such person. When her neighbor's daughter, Lucy, disappears, Suzanne traipses through the park in her English neighborhood searching for the young girl. Horrified, Suzanne thinks she finds Lucy, but, instead, it is the body of Lucy's flighty baby-sitter. Lucy is home safe, insisting that there are monsters in the park, and only Suzanne seems to understand the troubled girl. Then another young girl's body is found. Can Suzanne help these children, despite facing haunting shadows of her own, despite her seeming inability to communicate with her own son? Detective Steve McCarthy has his own doubts about Suzanne, as his investigation begins to unravel the terrible, complex story behind the senseless murders. This is one effective thriller. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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