BOOKISH FRIDAY: “HERE & GONE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is my current read:  Here and Gone, by Haylen Beck, is a gripping, wonderfully tense suspense thriller about a mother’s desperate fight to recover her stolen children from corrupt authorities.

 

Beginning:  The road swayed left then right, the rhythm of it making Audra Kinney’s eyelids grow heavier as each mile marker passed.  She had given up counting them; it only made the journey slower.  Her knuckles complained as she flexed her fingers on the wheel, palms greasy with sweat.

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56:  A pair of taut chains prevented the door from swinging back onto the floor, held it upright over the opening.  Louise stopped, planted her feet firmly on the wooden  boards.

“It’s too dark,” she said.

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Synopsis:  It begins with a woman fleeing through Arizona with her kids in tow, trying to escape an abusive marriage. When she’s pulled over by an unsettling local sheriff, things soon go awry and she is taken into custody. Only when she gets to the station, her kids are gone. And then the cops start saying they never saw any kids with her, that if they’re gone than she must have done something with them…

Meanwhile, halfway across the country a man hears the frenzied news reports about the missing kids, which are eerily similar to events in his own past. As the clock ticks down on the search for the lost children, he too is drawn into the desperate fight for their return.

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Would you rapidly turn those pages, trying to find out what happens next?  That has been my reaction.  A chilling introduction to a story that is bound to hold me captive.

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