Fiction Review

Lies
By Wells Earl Draughon
ISBN-10: 0595288332
Review by Heather Froeschl

Linda cannot continue with her life as if it were normal. She can't give up like the police seem to have done. Her daughter's room is exactly the way she'd left it, with clothes on the floor and her favorite stuffed animal on the tussled bed. Only her daughter is missing, leaving a terrible emptiness behind.

Linda joins a nationwide underground organization that pulls parents together in battling kidnappers. They are trained in surveillance techniques and interrogations, self-defense and stealth. They go on missions that involve luring people, whom they are told are kidnappers, into houses run by the organization. From there the person is tortured, supposedly to get information about missing children. This leaves the parents trapped in the organization, as they have broken the law; they have hurt people in their efforts to find their children.

While she knows it is wrong, something about the organization doesn't seem right, it doesn�t add up and Linda wonders if there might be something else going on. She picks up clues here and there that lead her to further her investigation of the group. What she finds out leads her to understand how much danger she is really in. She continues her own personal search for her daughter and cautiously does her part with the organization. If she doesn't, she may disappear herself.

Wells Earl Draughon has done it again, creating a suspenseful, energetic tale that touches on the deepest fear of parents, while, in this case, also awakens a rage over white supremacy. The plot is well written and results in a page-turner that you will not soon forget. A handful of typos are easy for the reader to overlook but are frustrating to me as they do not need to be there. I trust we will be seeing more from this author in the future and look forward to that day.

"Lies" is a fast paced read that will suck you in and keep you up until the final page. From there you will be left wondering what sinister organizations are really out there and you'll likely check the locks on your doors. I highly recommend this book but I warn parents that it may haunt you.