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“I think my real name is Samantha. I think I’m your daughter.”
Caroline Shipley’s heart nearly stops when she hears those words from the voice on the other end of the phone. Instantly, she’s thrust fifteen years into the past, to a posh resort in Baja, Mexico—and the fateful night her world collapsed.
The trip is supposed to be a celebration. Caroline’s husband, Hunter, convinces her to leave their two young daughters, Michelle and Samantha, alone in their hotel suite while the couple enjoys an anniversary dinner in the restaurant downstairs. But returning afterward, Caroline and Hunter make a horrifying discovery: Two-year-old Samantha has vanished without a trace.
What follows are days, weeks, and years of anguish for Caroline. She’s tormented by media attention that has branded her a cold, incompetent mother, while she struggles to save her marriage. Caroline also has to deal with the demands of her needy elder daughter, Michelle, who is driven to cope in dangerous ways. Through it all, Caroline desperately clings to the hope that Samantha will someday be found—only to be stung again and again by cruel reality.
Plunged back into the still-raw heartbreak of her daughter’s disappearance, and the suspicions and inconsistencies surrounding a case long gone cold, Caroline doesn’t know whom or what to believe. The only thing she can be sure of is that someone is fiercely determined to hide the truth of what happened to Samantha.
Praise for Joy Fielding’s Someone Is Watching
“Someone Is Watching gripped me from the first to the very last page. Bailey Carpenter is a heroine who’s both victim and warrior woman, a fascinating sleuth who will linger with you long after you’ve finished this thrilling read.”—Tess Gerritsen
“Fielding pens a spiraling tale of paranoia and suspense, as sultry as a Miami night.”—Jenny Milchman
“An edge-of-your-seat read . . . With Fielding’s patented blend of complex characters and escalating suspense, she is in top form here.”—Karen Robards
“Engrossing . . . The characters pulsate with life.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A gripping, fast-paced psychological thriller . . . Fielding’s story of one woman’s search for justice, understanding, and internal peace is nothing short of arresting.”—Booklist (starred review)
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 23, 2016 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781101966884
- File size: 1340 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781101966884
- File size: 1344 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 15, 2015
A toddler disappears from a Mexican hotel room, deepening the fissures in an already fractured family. On an anniversary trip to Mexico, San Diego couple Caroline and Hunter make a fateful decision to leave their two daughters in their resort hotel room while they have dinner with friends in the courtyard below. They take turns checking on Michelle, 5, and Samantha, 2, every 30 minutes, but sometime in the half hour before their return, Samantha goes missing from her crib. The police and the media blame the couple, particularly Caroline, since her demeanor at a press conference is too aloof. (It's just that shock becomes her.) Over the next 15 years, Hunter, a high-powered lawyer, seeks refuge with other, successively younger women, and reporters continue to hound Caroline on every anniversary of the disappearance. After a rocky adolescence, Michelle is now a young adult with a drinking problem due to her lifelong resentment of all the attention her younger sibling, though absent, still commands. Caroline's brother, Steve, who was the favored sibling in her own family, and her hypercritical mother, Mary, add to the complexity of Caroline's life as a divorcee struggling to hold on to her latest high school teaching job. (Principals have a tendency to fire her as soon as they learn of her past.) Into this morass walks Lili, a Canadian teen who believes she's Samantha--though only Mary is convinced there's a resemblance. Compounding this uncertainty is the fact that Hunter lied to the police: he was actually committing adultery when he was supposed to be checking on the children. As the family awaits a DNA test, the suspense mounts, but not as quickly as our disbelief due to several inconsistencies and improbabilities. This time, Fielding seems to be phoning in the thrills.COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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February 1, 2016
Twelve years ago, Caroline Shipley had it all: a hardworking husband and two precious girls. When an anniversary trip to Mexico results in a nightmare, her world is turned upside down. Her daughter Samantha is kidnapped, and the trail runs cold. Caroline is painted as a pariah by the media and forced to relive the disappearance every year after. Her marriage dissolves, and her relationship with her remaining daughter, Michelle, is strained. Then one day, she receives a call from a young woman claiming to be Samantha. Is she? Isn't she? Either way, Caroline's life and the lives of those around her are about to change drastically as Caroline struggles to figure out who she can and cannot believe. Clearly a takeoff on the real-life disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, this taut, psychological story is Fielding at her finest. Readers will not be able to put it down.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.) -
September 15, 2015
While Carole Shipley and her husband were celebrating their wedding anniversary in Mexico, their infant daughter was kidnapped. Fifteen years later, the now divorced Carole gets a call from a young woman claiming to be her daughter. From the New York Times best-selling author of Someone Is Watching.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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