By Alistair Brown
Christian Focus Publications
215 pages. £2.99
ISBN 1 85792 101 1
In this novel for youngsters, Wendy is a teenager whose happy world suddenly collapses when her father announces that he is leaving home to live with his girlfriend. Beside herself with anger and despair, Wendy also leaves home, only to find herself in a dangerous and unpleasant situation from which escape seems very unlikely. The subsequent search for Wendy by parents, police and friends lasts for a couple of days, and is exciting and gripping reading.
This is a highly topical book, touching upon marriage breakdown, serial killers, and the loneliness and anonymity of the lives of many in some towns and cities. Whereas the effects of marital breakdown upon children tend to be conveniently ignored or downplayed by society, the reality is disturbing, and this book gives an insight into this. In this story we find, too, the reality and prevalence of evil, masquerading here as friendship and concern. The horror of what befalls Wendy, the seeming irrationality of it all, and the lovelessness of her captor, is at times chillingly intense. Then there is the subject of friendship, which some fear is endangered by the uncommitted, hang-loose philosophy of some in our 'post-modern' age. By contrast, Wendy has a good friend called Helen, whose concern and commitment is a strong theme in the book. Linked with this is Helen's (effective) praying for Wendy, and Wendy's own spiritual awakening. But this is no trite or clumsy imposition of a 'gospel' message; the deft weaving of an overtly spiritual dimension (notably the providence of God) into the story, achieved the author's light touch, only adds to its plausibility.
