Ten years ago Charles "Mack" MacKenzie Jr. disappeared with no warning right before he was to go to law school.  The only contact he's made is a one minute phone call home every year on Mother's Day.  No other calls, no letters, no snapshots...not even when his father died.

Now Carolyn MacKenzie, his 26 year old sister, finds herself at a crossroads in her life and decides to dedicate a month to tracking him down and learning the truth about why he vanished.  She tells "Mack" of her intentions during his annual call and the next day gets a cryptic note telling her she should not try to find him delivered through a church.  This merely makes her more determined.

Her search starts with the police report and private investigator's findings from ten years ago.  From there she talks to his friends, roommates, landlords, including Nick DeMarco his best friend and her old crush.  What she finds is that everyone has a secret to hide and no one is telling her the whole truth.

But Mack isn't the only one missing anymore.  Through the years three young women have also vanished.  In the midst of Carolyn's search, Leesey Andrews, a college student goes missing.... only this time all things seem to point to Mack being a serial killer.  Carolyn's search for the unvarnished truth puts her
in danger from the one person whose secret is worth killing to keep hidden.

WHERE ARE YOU NOW? by Mary Higgins Clark has some serious surprises that keep you guessing and the author has yet another unexpected twist for an ending.  Her characters are varied and, if anything, too plentiful which made it hard for me to get caught up in the book.  Within the first 20 pages, I found myself introduced to at least ten characters and that was merely the beginning.  I found myself flipping back and forth as I tried to figure out how each person was involved in the story.  With too many fleshed out characters, I couldn't connect enough with Carolyn or anyone else to truly care about the outcome.  Normally this is an author and genre I like but this time I just couldn't get involved in the book.

June 10, 2008