If you’re a long-time reader, you know I’m a Carrie Rubin fan. And there’s a pretty good chance you are too. In fact, you probably already are planning to read this book, no matter what my review says. At most, all I need to say is that it’s everything we expect from one of Dr. Rubin’s books, and that alone should send you running to buy it.
But, I would hardly be upholding my reputation as a writer of long-winded reviews if I didn’t add some corroborative detail. We’ve got the catacombs of Paris, rumors of sinister activities within them, and our heroine, Kelly Burke, a student working as an au pair with the very same family that had previously employed the titular missing woman, Erin Fenton.
Driven by the loss of another friend, Kelly is obsessed with finding Erin, no matter what obstacles stand in her way. She is assisted by her friend and fellow student, a young man named Wayne, who sticks by Kelly even as her obsession with finding the lost woman pushes her to run greater and greater risks.
That’s the plot. But the setting is just as important, 1980s Paris comes to life, drawn from the author’s recollections as one who herself was an au pair there at that time. While I’m not one to insist that a writer must experience something firsthand before writing about it (tricky for an author of science fiction 🙂 ), there can be no doubt that having experienced that time and place lends a feeling of plausibility to the entire story.
All these little touches make the book feel real, and like something that could plausibly happen. Of course, that doesn’t include the darker aspects of the story… I’m sure things like that could never happen. Right? Well, anyway, I certainly hope not. I don’t want to spoil the whole thing, but let’s just say the plot involves some of my favorite fictional tropes, which is yet another point in the book’s favor. I wish I could say more about this, but I just can’t without spoiling the story.
I’m tempted to say this might be Carrie’s best book yet. It’s difficult to choose, of course, and I’ll always have a soft spot for The Seneca Scourge, with its sci-fi twist, as well as for the dark psychological mysteries of Broken Hope and the Liza Larkin series. Everyone has their own preferences, but this one is surely top tier, in no small part due to the extremely likable protagonist, who is easy to root for from the start.
It occurs to me, as I put the finishing touches on this review and WordPress’s deeply unhelpful AI assistant offers to provide suggestions, that an AI could never write a book like this, drawn as it is from the author’s personal memories. What makes a good story are all the little pieces of themselves the author puts into it, and only Carrie had the exact combination of experiences necessary to write this book. That’s what makes it such a pleasure to read.