MISSING CHILD (Patricia MacDonald)

Patricia MacDonald writes terrific domestic thrillers and this one is no exception.  Caitlin Eckart is happily married to Noah and is a loving stepmother to 6-year-old Geordie, but she has a secret.  Nearly four years ago her 16-year-old brother (and ward) James was the driver in a hit-and-run accident that killed Noah's first wife, Emily.  James died of a drug overdose before Caitlin could convince him to turn himself in to the police.  At a memorial service for Emily a year later, Caitlin's intention is to introduce herself to Emily's widower, Noah, and confess her brother's role in the tragedy and her own failure to report her knowledge to the police.  Instead, she falls in love with Noah and the right time for confession never seems to come.  Now part of a happy, loving family with a son that she thinks of as her own, Caitlin still worries about her deception and how it could destroy their happiness.

Everything falls apart one autumn day when Geordie disappears from school without a trace.  Emily's parents, Westy and Paula Bergen, her brother Dan, ex-sister-in-law Haley, and Noah's sister and mother, Naomi and Martha, are consumed with fear over Geordie's fate, and suspicions grow and fester within the family.  When James' old girlfriend Karla, who has been born again, stops by Noah and Caitlin's house after seeing news of Geordie's disappearance on the news, she discusses Emily's fatal accident with Noah, inadvertently revealing Caitlin's "secret" and throwing the family into turmoil.  Of course, this new information prompts Noah and the police to question Caitlin's character and motivations and to wonder what else she may be hiding.

I stayed up until 11:30 last night finishing this novel.  I was shocked at the outcome, but it made sense.  These are two of the marks of a good thriller, in my opinion: you can't wait to get to the end and when you do you are simultaneously shocked and wondering why you didn't see it coming.  MacDonald is good, very good.  She gets my vote as the current queen of domestic thrillers!  Read this!