Review: Come Home by Lisa Scottoline

 

Come Home
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Published: April 10, 2012
Genre: thriller
Hardcover: 384 pages
Source: borrowed from the library

My Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis (from GoodReads): Jill Farrow is a typical suburban mom who has finally gotten her and her daughter's lives back on track after a divorce. She is about to remarry, her job as a pediatrician fulfills her---though it is stressful---and her daughter, Megan, is a happily over-scheduled thirteen-year-old juggling homework and the swim team.

But Jill’s life is turned upside down when her ex-stepdaughter, Abby, shows up on her doorstep late one night and delivers shocking news: Jill’s ex-husband is dead. Abby insists that he was murdered and pleads with Jill to help find his killer. Jill reluctantly agrees to make a few inquiries and discovers that things don’t add up. As she digs deeper, her actions threaten to rip apart her new family, destroy their hard-earned happiness, and even endanger her own life. Yet Jill can’t turn her back on a child she loves and once called her own.

Come Home reads with the breakneck pacing of a thriller while also exploring the definition of motherhood, asking the questions: Do you ever stop being a mother? Can you ever have an ex-child? What are the limits to love of family?

My Thoughts: I enjoy Lisa Scottoline's books and was excited when I saw her newest novel out. Focusing on Jill Farrow, a woman who is struggling with her role as an ex-stepmother when her ex-stepdaughters are in trouble following the death of their father. It's a unique situation and the plot had me guessing the entire time. While seeing Jill struggle with her relationship with her former children, along with that of her daughter and her fiance, Jill must also try and figure out what exactly happened to her ex-husband. It's a twisting plot, one that I didn't want to walk away from and constantly found myself trying to figure out what was going to happen next.

I did have one complaint with this book, which is why I only gave it three stars. For me, the dialogue was just too stilted. It felt forced and unorganic. The conversations between Jill and her daughter Megan were just too fake for me. I don't know many parents and children who speak to each other that way, constantly polite and saying, "I love you!" (I mean, her daughter is 13. How many 13 year olds are constantly saying that to their moms?!?) That was the only detractor for me in this novel. I loved the characters, loved the action and the thrill of the hunt as Jill attempts to solve this case. It was fast-paced and something that I was able to read in a few days. I enjoyed this one and look forward to more of Scottoline's work.