The Boy in the Photo

Page turner with a bad ending. That's about it.

The Boy in the Photo by Nicole Trope is a tautly constructed family drama at the center of which is Daniel, who is finally reunited with his mother, Megan, six years after being kidnapped by his father.

It was a parent's worst nightmare. Megan finally extricated herself from her abusive marriage to Greg, an emotional and sometimes physical bully. But because they shared a son, Daniel, she could not completely avoid contact with him. Even after the custody and visitation arrangements were in place, and the financial issues resolved, Greg continued emailing and texting Megan, attempting to convince her to reconcile. He blamed her for destroying their family, telling her, "You'll know this pain one day." Megan wanted to believe Greg's words were nothing more than an idle threat, but she couldn't help but wonder if he was so angry and unhinged that he might attempt to hurt her or, worse, Daniel.

And then it happened. Greg did something he had never, ever done before: he picked Daniel up from school. Without Megan's knowledge or consent. Megan soon discovered that Greg's cell and landline telephone numbers were disconnected, and he quit his job a month earlier. Greg's parents insisted they had not seen Greg and did not know his whereabouts. Megan's anguished publicized pleas for her son's return went unheeded, and his abduction became a cold case, although the detective assigned to it, Michael, insisted he would never stop looking for Daniel.

As the years passed, Megan refused to entertain the idea that her son could be dead. She drew strength from the fact that Greg loved Daniel, believing Greg was being raised and cared for by his father, and would return to her as an adult. After Daniel had been gone for five years, Megan found herself guilt-ridden when she realized she had emotionally arrived at a place of acceptance. Eventually, she agreed to have coffee with Michael, who reached out every year on the anniversary of Daniel's disappearance to make sure Megan knew he had not forgotten and would never give up the search. With no alternative but to go on living, Megan agreed to marry Michael and they became parents to six-month-old Evie.

When Daniel suddenly walks into a police station, announcing his identity and reporting that his father died when the ramshackle cabin in the woods where they had been living burned down, Megan is flooded with joy and relief . . . and questions about what Daniel has experienced during the six years he was missing. She hopes their strong emotional bond will still exist when they are reunited, and is anxious about Daniel's transition into the new family Megan and Michael have formed in his absence.

Trope effectively relates the story through alternating chapters set in different time periods. The book opens in the present day as Megan learns that Daniel's whereabouts have been revealed. Trope then takes readers back six years to the day Daniel was abducted by Greg, providing the perspectives of both Megan and Daniel. Interspersed chapters are set on the anniversaries of Daniel's disappearance, advancing the story by one-year increments and providing insight into Daniel's experiences as he and Greg moved from place to place, and Greg systematically engaged in parental alienation -- the process of breaking down a child's relationship with the other parent. Greg told Daniel horrible lies about Megan designed to make Daniel believe she neither loved nor wanted to care for him. Likewise, Trope reveals Megan's emotional journey as she endured years without her son. The characters' backstories provide context and heighten reader empathy when, in successive chapters, Trope thrusts them back into the drama playing out in the present.

Megan leans, understandably, on Michael, who is able to remain somewhat detached because of his profession and experience, as well as the fact that he never knew Daniel. She also seeks guidance from the therapist retained to treat Daniel, who advises her not to push but, rather, to permit Daniel to relate his experiences in his own time and way. However, Megan remains suspicious, even though DNA testing conclusively confirms Daniel's identity. His behavior is disturbing, alarming, and frightening. The sweet little boy Megan raised is gone and in his place a nearly thirteen-year-old adolescent exhibits anger, hostility, and resentment. Gradually, he reveals the lies Greg told him about Megan, but seems unconvinced when Megan offers the truth. Daniel clings obsessively to an old cell phone he says lacks a SIM card on which photographs of his father and the places to which they traveled while Greg was evading the authorities are stored. At one point, Megan hears Daniel talking to someone when he is alone in his room. As they await confirmation that the fire victim discovered in the ruins of the burned-out cabin was, in fact, Greg, Megan grows increasingly concerned that her son has been so effectively brainwashed, his view of the world inalterably skewed by the years with his father, that he may never become a functioning member of the family and their relationship may never be repaired. Indeed, Megan comes to wonder what horrible acts Daniel might have become capable of committing, and ponders whether it is safe to trust him with Evie.

Trope keeps the action moving at an unrelenting pace as readers' suspicions grow along with Megan's. Because she painstakingly and compellingly reveals what happened to Megan and Daniel during the years they were apart, they are each endearing characters. With Daniel, in particular, Trope has crafted a complex, believable, and heartbreakingly sympathetic young man. He is an innocent victim caught up in a heinous scheme rooted in a need for control and retribution by his father. Trope credibly examines the extent of the psychological damage he sustained. Daniel's bewilderment and confusion is palpable as he struggles to reconcile the mother with whom he is reunited with the one he remembers and, in contrast, the lies he heard from his father for six long years.

And every parent will understand Megan's anguish, first about finding herself married to a man who tried to control her and then, when that failed, focused his demented quest for revenge on his young son. Megan's evolution from utter despair to effectively managing her grief and finding happiness in her new marriage and second chance at mothering is equally believable and compassionately portrayed.

The Boy in the Photo is also another cautionary tale about the dangers lurking in cyberspace. Trope includes a harrowing subplot about Megan's online interactions with other parents whose children were abducted by their former partners that nearly results in devastating consequences.

With its intriguing characters, contemporary topics, and plenty of suspense and surprising plot twists, The Boy in the Photo is engrossing and, ultimately, affirming.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance reader's copy and Grand Central Publishing for a physical copy of the book.

This was a great read.

Quite enjoyed this, from Andrea