Cast Into Doubt - Patricia MacDonald

Cast Into Doubt by Patricia MacDonald


First Paragraph:

Prajit Singh didn't want any drama on his shift.  He needed time to concentrate.  So far, it had been a quiet night, and that was the way he preferred it.  Drivers came and went, coming in to use the restrooms, and pay for their gas.  Kids hung around drinking slurpees from the machine at the back of the store, and harried moms came in to pick up a quart of milk for breakfast, or some small bags of chips to toss into the kids' lunches.  Old people bought newspapers and poor people bought lottery tickets.  Prajit used the in-between time to work on his studies.  He was in medical school, and the work was grueling.  He always had a textbook open under the counter.  The venous systems, or the lobes of the brain, or grimace-inducing photos of virulent skin conditions were always peeking out from the shelf under the cash register.  Prajit was a juggler of time and responsibilities and other people's needs.  He was so used to being exhausted and overburdened that it almost seemed normal to him now.

My Thoughts:

Cast Into Doubt was my first book by suspense author Patricia MacDonald.  It was an interesting story with lots of twists and turns.  Shelby Sloan's daughter and son-in-law are on a cruise, a trip that Shelby had given them as a treat.  She receives a call saying that her daughter, Chloe, is missing and thought to have fallen overboard.  After the investigation is quickly closed and assumptions made about Chloe and her life, Shelby refuses to accept the convenient conclusion.  She investigates on her own and discovers a lot about her daughter that she didn't know.  This tale kept my interest, though it wasn't unique in any way.  I will be trying other books by this author.  Her publisher is Severn House and I've decided to check out a few of other authors that they publish.
 

Blurb:

A gripping novel of domestic suspense - Shelby Sloan, a successful Philadelphia businesswoman in her early forties, has one child, a daughter whom she raised on her own.  She gives her daughter, Chloe, and son-in-law, Rob, a Caribbean cruise as a gift, while she takes the opportunity to mind her four-year-old grandson. But life becomes a nightmare when Rob calls to tell her that Chloe has disappeared overboard. The police decide it was an accident, but Shelby refuses to accept the official verdict . . .