Emma in the Night - Wendy Walker

Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

First Paragraph(s):

According to the Greek myth, Narcissus was a hunter who was exceptionally beautiful and proud.  He was so proud, in fact, that he rejected anyone who tried to love him.  Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, decided to punish Narcissus.  She lured him to a pool of water where he was able to see his own reflection.  He fell madly in love with himself and stared at his reflection until he died.

We believe what we want to believe.  We believe what we need to believe.  Maybe there's no difference between wanting and needing.  I don't know.  What I do know is that the truth can evade us, hiding behind our blind spots, our preconceptions, our hungry hearts that long for quiet.  Still, it is always there if we open our eyes and try to see it.  If we really try to see.

My Thoughts:

As you can see above, the first part of this book tells the reader of the Greek myth about Narcissus.  I always thought it was kind of humorous - falling in love with one's reflection - but in Emma in the Night - scary!  Two sisters disappear.  After three years, the younger sister shows up again.  The FBI had been involved with the original event and the same forensic psychiatrist returns, along with her partner, to determine what happened.  Dr. Abby Winter knows about girls who are raised in homes where someone might have narcissistic personality disorder.  She wrote her thesis on that mental illness.  And she's not sure exactly what happened here, but she's going to find out.

I remember hearing about this book when it was originally published last summer.  I ran across it on the library audio list and decided to listen to it narrated by Julia Whelen and Therese Plummer (both very good).  Told from the viewpoints of Dr. Winter and also Cass Tanner, the sister that returns, the reader isn't sure what is what or who is telling any sort of truth.  And then the story turns upside down.  Where is Emma?  Where has Cass been all this time?  I was really caught up in the story and guessed one thing and then another.  It was definitely a book that was hard to put down or quit listening.  Very compelling - I liked it a lot.  Now to wait and see what Wendy Walker writes next. 

Blurb:

One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.