C.H. Armstrong Books

I hate admitting this, but I don’t have time to read these days.  No, that’s not true.  I don’t have as much time as I want to read these days.  Traditionally, I’ve been one to go through several books in a week. These days, it’s taking me several weeks to get through one book. And it frustrates me.  So I’ve discovered a new option:  audio books.  They’re  not my favorite because I tend to find myself daydreaming; but, with a good narrator that pulls me in, I’m finding that I like them.  On my recent drive to Oklahoma, I found audio books to be a wonderful alternative to the radio, and it gave me a chance to knock out a couple of those books that I’ve been dying to read for a while.  One of those books is Look Again by Lisa Scottoline.

I used to be a big fan of Scottoline’s books.  In fact, before she was as well known as she is today, I scarfed down all of her early works in the Rosato and Associates series, with the exception of Everywhere That Mary Went.  I really enjoyed her writing, but time and other books got in the way and I moved on.  The next thing I knew, she was nearly a household name and her “Emotional Thrillers” were getting really high acclaim, so I added her back into my TBR-lis.  Sadly, months went by and I hadn’t had a chance to really settle down to do any serious reading…until I drove to Oklahoma and listened to Look Again on audio.  All I can say is, “Wow!  I’d forgotten how awesome Scottoline is!”

Look Again kept me turning the pages from the first few paragraphs.  The premise is a young woman reporter whose adopted son is an absolute duplicate of a child whose face appears on a postcard for missing and abducted children.  The mother knows her son was adopted legally, and yet she can’t get the idea out of her head that he looks too much like this missing child.  And, as anyone who knows anything about reporters knows, we’re a curious lot and can’t seem to let things go until we understand the full story.  So she starts digging…

I don’t want to ruin this book for anyone who hasn’t read it, but I will say that it raises several moral and ethical questions.  For example, what if the mother discovers her adopted son is the missing child in question?  Is she legally obligated to report it?  Is she morally obligated?  While she’s done nothing illegal herself related to the adoption, is she committing a crime by keeping silent and just ignoring the possibilities?

Look Again would make a wonderful book club selection because it prompts the reader to ask so many questions, and to take a introspective look at himself/herself.  If the  mother doesn’t owe it to the legal system or the biological parents to report that she believes her child is the missing child in question, does she owe it to her child to give him back the heritage that was ripped from him?

My review, then, is a very enthusiastic 5-stars for Lisa Scottoline’s Look Again. Besides the obvious questions, there are so many twists and turns that the reader will be unable to set the book down and may find herself reading long into the early hours of the morning.

Do yourself a favor — get ahold of a copy and read it this week!