It starts with a trip to a local amusement park. David Harwood is hoping a carefree day at Five Mountains will help dispel his wife Jan's recent depression, black moods that have led to frightening thoughts of suicide. Instead, a day of fun with their four-year-old son Ethan turns into a nightmare. When Jan disappears from the park, David's worst fears seem to have come true. But when he goes to the police to report her missing, terrified that she's planning to take her own life, the facts start to indicate something very different. The park's records show that only two tickets were purchased, David and Ethan's, and CCTV shows no evidence that Jan ever entered the park at all. Suddenly David's story starts to look suspicious - suspicious enough for the police to wonder if she's already dead, murdered by her husband. To prove his innocence and keep his son from being taken away from him, David is going to have to dig deep into the past and come face to face with a terrible childhood tragedy - but by doing that he could risk destroying everything precious to him.
This was a story that didn’t go where you expected it to. The twists and turns started from the very beginning, but some held together better than others. We end up with two non-related story lines that are connected by one person: journalist David Harwood.
David is understandably upset when his wife disappears and things start to not make sense. But I think he was allowed a little too much leeway for someone who is essentially a murder suspect. The cops in this story are largely useless, and I might have preferred if they weren’t involved at all. The resolution has a little bit of a “let’s just hurry up and tie this up” ring to it.
Overall, this wasn’t a bad read, I just didn’t think it was top notch. I would give Barclay another try; this premise and I never clicked.
