Imagine that your family, established for generations in a small Midwestern farming community, is suddenly the focus of interest in a criminal investigation. The Hammerstrom family is thrown into a storm of controversy when Johnny Hammerstrom's girlfriend, the beautiful and popular Stacy Lemke, vanishes into a blizzard after Johnny's truck slides off the road after a date. When search crews find no trace of the 16-year-old, Johnny is the logical suspect in her disappearance, especially after no one can confirm the couple's whereabouts in the hours before Johnny arrives home, his hand bleeding and his truck in a ditch. Even 9-year-old Kirsten, the narrator, doubts her brother's innocence. As the family endures relentless press attention and escalating attacks from the community, the search for Stacy fruitlessly continues. Eventually even the family, with the exception of Johnny's father, John, begin to look to Johnny to somehow provide answers and relieve the relentless shunning from their neighbors and former friends.
Although the ending was a bit less satisfying than I expected it to be, I couldn't put this novel down once I got started. Any family could end up as the Hammerstrom's did, which is the really scary thing. None of us knows how much pressure we are capable of enduring and what unknown facets lie beneath the surface of the people that we believe we know the best. This is a thriller well worth reading!
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