Not By Sight by Kathy Herman ~ Book Review

Five years ago Abby Cummings family was devastated when her father and 2 year old sister went missing.  No clue was found as to what happened to them and the family struggles to move on.  Each handles it in their own way.  Abby, with her grandfather's support, has drawn closer in relationship to the Lord.  She holds out in faith that her father and sister are still alive somewhere.  This has led to a couple of instances where Abby thinks she has seen a little girl that could be Riley Jo.  Neither time proved correct so when she once again sees a young girl she's never seen before in her town that she thinks might look exactly as Riley Jo would look at age 7 she snaps a picture.  No one takes her seriously because of the former false alarms except her best friend Jay.  When Abby starts asking questions downtown, it worries her mother who through the ordeal has lost her faith, but she relents to Abby's determination to pursue finding out who the girl is if Abby agrees to back to counseling.  But when Abby receives some disturbing phone call warnings to let it go from a stranger, she knows she is on the right track pursuing this whether the girl is Riley Jo or not.  As Abby and Jay pursue finding out who this man and young girl is some horrible secrets will come to light that they might not be prepared to face.

I have read several of this author's series in the past and loved them.  This is the 1st installment of her latest series, Ozark Mountain Trilogy.  It was a good mystery filled with tension and I loved the exploration of what such devastating circumstances can do to a family's faith and how they approach life afterwards.  How each family member coped and worked out their grief was very true to life.  And because Abby and her mom were on opposite ends of the spectrum in how they coped there was also the tension between the two added to the story.   However, I did find some of the conversations throughout the story a bit unrealistic and maybe forced I think is the way I would describe it? The tension and suspense were carried throughout the story and there were some good twists and turns right until the end.

I rated this an 8 out of 10

Reading Goals Met:  Read what I own:  older purchase