Caldwell, Laura: Look Closely

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Hailey Sutter is a high-powered attorney up for partner at her father's Manhattan law firm. An important arbitration meeting brings her to Chicago, not far from her childhood home, which she left abruptly at the age of seven after her mother's death. Her receipt of an anonymous note shortly before her trip leads Hailey to visit her old neighborhood and start asking the questions she's been afraid to ask before: how did her mother die, and why did her death lead to the dissolution of Hailey's family? (She hasn't seen her brother and sister in more than twenty years.) Hailey's investigation, meanwhile, stirs up some long-forgotten memories, but they are frustratingly incomplete. Throughout, Hailey's father, though mostly off-scene, looms as a menacing entity.

Upon reflection, having finished Look Closely, I would argue that the premise is hard to swallow. And Hailey's repressed memories--which so often bring her just to the point of grasping something important--are interrupted too often by noises or someone talking to her, so that the pattern of memory followed by interruption seems lazy. But while reading the book I was for the most part thoroughly engrossed. Caldwell does a great job of keeping us guessing about the bad guy and worrying about the truth that Haley is slowly uncovering. This one was a page turner.