Finding Casey

I hadn’t realised that Finding Casey is a continuation of a story begun in Mapson’s Solomon’s Oak, which introduces the characters of Glory, Joseph and Juniper, not that it matters as this novel works well as a stand alone.

Set in Sante Fe, Glory and her new husband Joseph Vigil, a police officer retired on disability, have not long settled into a new home they share with a ghost nicknamed Dolores, and their adopted daughter, Juniper, when she is home from college in Albuquerque. When Glory discovers she is pregnant at 41 she is stunned yet excited, even with the persistent morning sickness and concerns about carrying a baby to term at her age.

Juniper is excited to be welcoming a baby brother or sister to their family but she can’t help but be reminded of her younger sister, Casey, who was abducted as a young child and never found. Juniper refuses to dwell on the long ago tragedy though instead focuses on the challenges of college and her budding relationship with the handsome but feckless Topher.

As Glory nests, Joseph considers a career change and Juniper experiences the joy and heartbreak of first love, a young woman named Laurel defies her isolated religious community to seek medical help for her seriously ill daughter, Aspen. As Laurel sits by her child’s bedside willing her to recover from the coma she has slipped into, she reflects on her history with Seth and the Farm while trying to avoid the probing questions of the hospital’s social worker and staff.

The connection between Laurel and the Vigil family soon becomes apparent but it is a remarkable, if unlikely, twist of fate that brings them together. Not that I minded much, even with the predictability of the plot and uneven pacing, because I had come to care about the characters and wanted the best for each of them.

Finding Casey is a charming story of family, love and redemption. ( )