FBI Agent Atlee Pine's life was never the same after her twin sister Mercy was kidnapped -- and likely killed -- thirty years ago. When she was six years old, someone snuck into her bedroom, kidnapped her twin sister, and left her for dead. FBI Agent Atlee Pine's life was never the same after her twin sister Mercy was kidnapped--and likely killed--thirty years ago.

Once again Baldacci has surpassed himself, and this series will no doubt appeal to ardent, long-term fans and those new to his novels too. After catching a little girl's kidnapper and beating him almost to death, Atlee Pine's boss makes her take a leave. Cyrus Tanner and his dog, Roscoe, now live in her dilapidated childhood home, as Pine interviews various town residents about what happened that night, including Lauren Graham, Jackson Lineberry, and Myron and Britta Pringle. There are numerous moments of revelation that even Atlee could not have predicted, which thickens the plot.She has a serious attitude, impulse, anger, and behavioral issues that are not addressed at all that probably stem from her getting her skull fractured and bashed in and nearly dying as a 6-year-old How she still has her job is anyone's guess. The story uses Atlee’s ongoing curiosity about her sister’s disappearance to permit the reader to see some of the backstory that she brings to the novel. But in a small town full of secrets — some of which could answer the questions that have plagued Atlee her entire life — and digging deeper into the past could be more dangerous than she realizes . She reflects on how these traumatic events led to her parents, Tim and Julia, leaving Georgia and how it tore their marriage apart, with Pine living with her mother, until Julia left her. She is putting herself through the torture of seeing this monstrous man because she is convinced that he was responsible for the abduction of her twin sister, Mercy, when she was six years old.

But in a small town full of secrets--some of which could answer the questions that have plagued Atlee her entire life--digging deeper into the past could be more dangerous than she realizes .

and Atlee has gone back to her home town to seek the truth and also gets roped in to help with another string of murders. Indeed the book ends up telling a different story to the one expected (cue book 3 in the series) which I found amusing, but also frustrating as I now feel I'm half-way through and won't know until at least next year what happens next!