The plot is every mother's, teacher's and community's nightmare. 2 kids disappear off of a school playground and when they are found a little girl is dead and the other is a boy with Autism who has retreated into himself which in turn makes the characters have to look into their pasts and unearth secrets that will change all of there lives. It starts of fairly linear but then it delves into a variety of storylines including a group of middle schoolers in a social skills group for "kids wit...more The plot is every mother's, teacher's and community's nightmare. 2 kids disappear off of a school playground and when they are found a little girl is dead and the other is a boy with Autism who has retreated into himself which in turn makes the characters have to look into their pasts and unearth secrets that will change all of there lives. It starts of fairly linear but then it delves into a variety of storylines including a group of middle schoolers in a social skills group for "kids without friends" and the bullying they have endured and seen, and Adam's (the boy with autism) mother's past including a best friend who is now does not leave her house and Kevin a boy who she knew in high school that has physical limitations of his own. Lots and twists and turns and overall great mystery that was a fun ride.
I do bid warning, if you have a child going into middle school or in Special Ed, it may be a hard read.
I also have to give credit to the author, being a mom to a child with Autism she did a nice job depicting the mom's struggle through her son's life. ( )

Gives insight into living with a child who has autism

This book tries to be a suspenseful mystery as well as general fiction that sheds light on autism. The mystery fails but the author succeeds in creating a fascinating character and, by telling the story from various points of view, gives the reader a well-developed picture of autism and related issues of childhood and development. ( )

may want to finish reading at another time

This book was an interesting read--the dialogue was in a great narrative voice and the characters were all sufficiently complex to warrant your attention. The mystery aspect of the novel was more of an after-thought, a plot device to tell the story of relationships (parent/child, friendships, male/female). The story left you wondering about the loss of childhood innocence and if any relationships are really as stable as they may seem on the surface. ( )

I wasn't sure what to expect from this thriller 'whodunnit' story. I knew that it involved a murder and an autistic boy but not much more. Although I had an idea that it would not be anything like "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" which has the same (from top-level) plot. This book was well written and easy to read. I felt that the various relationships of the characters intertwined quite well and I was only mildly confused a couple of times working out who was who. The twists were quite good and kept me guessing until the end. Although I felt the ending wasn't particularly exciting. Still, a fairly good read. ( )

I read this book in less than a day! It was riveting and written very well. This murder mystery goes in directions that you would never believe! It was surprisingly nice and nicely done! ( )

I am not a big fan of this book. I really struggled to get into reading it as I didn't feel particularly drawn to the characters. It picked up a bit towards the end, but the first half of the book just left me feeling that if I shut it and stopped reading it wouldn't bother me at all. Just my opinion. ( )

Publishers Weekly
This is a difficult book for a reader. Fletcher has a clean, clear voice for the narrator and for Cara, mother of an autistic child who is found in the woods near the dead body of a retarded girl. But her other voices are unconvincing; they all sound so off that it's hard to distinguish autistic children and adults from those who aren't. Morgan, the boy who solves the murder, sounds like a deranged adult, while young Chris, who lures a teen bully into the woods, sounds like a peculiar man uttering short, jerky words and phrases. Although wrapped like a mystery, this is really a book about autism, about the numerous forms it can take, about parents who do or don't devote themselves to understanding and helping their children. All of this is genuinely interesting, but as a novel it's contrived. The children's interior monologues give the reader a glimpse into their thought processes, but are so detailed they don't ring true. (One child distinguishes between "mean" and "cruel" behavior-verbal vs. physical abuse.) The mystery is less compelling than the author's valuable insights into our "compassion, disdain, terror and pity" for these youngsters.

The best part of this story is the glimpse into the mind of an autistic child, albeit an incomplete glimpse, as the child's mother isn't always able to interpret her son's methods of communicating.

The more curious aspect of the story is the mother's own form of, for want of a better phrase, "soclal autism", or, basically, the inability to form complex relationships with others (her son is the sole exception), or to see the impact that her actions have had on the lives of others. It is this failure which will resurface to haunt her as she tries to understand what her son witnessed when one of his rare playmates, a young girl, is murdered in the woods behind their elementary school.

Along the way, we meet characters who are all unique in their own right: an obsessive compulsive boy, the son of an environmental activist mother; defensive educators, an ex-lover with a grudge and an ex-girlfriend with a grudge ... which makes the reader wonder why Cara has managed to make so many enemies while seeing herself as harmless.

It's an interesting psychological portrait from many angles and very well written.

twisty murder mystery; author interview & book discussion questions are the best part

8.07 ( )

This was a very good book, but the climax and conclusion were a litle weak. You get so wrapped up in trying to figure out who killed the young girl, that when you find out who did it and why you feel cheated. ( )

The author has an autistic son, and her book shows that she has done extensive research on the subject of autistic children, but also manages to weave an interesting murder/plot into her novel. ( )