Claudia Rose, in the fourth entry in this series by Sheila Lowe, has the Southern California graphologist and her nearly life-long friend, Kelly, responding to the latter’s half-sister, Erin, who pleads for help in finding her young daughter, Kylie. Kylie’s father has apparently abducted her, and the note Erin shows the women is frightening enough to galvanize them into action. When Erin was four years old, their mother, an alcoholic, moved, taking her four sons with her. Kelly, the oldest and the same age as Claudia, had already been taken in by Claudia’s family till the girls finished high school; Erin ultimately left home at fifteen and joined The Temple of Brighter Light, referred to as TBL [a new religion, or cult, depending on your beliefs]. Kelly hasn’t seen Erin in almost two decades, but feels both responsible for her and guilty for not having ‘been there’ for her in all the intervening years.
Erin’s husband, 14 years her senior, is also a member of TBL, and the couple was given the somewhat dubious honor of having their exquisite daughter dubbed The Chosen One, the plan being for Kylie to join Jephthah’s Daughters and be taken to a convent to devote her life to prayer and service, this to be done when she turns three years of age, which is five days away. Erin beseeches the women’s help in finding her daughter, terrified, she says, of what her husband might have planned.
The author has once again written a fast-paced, suspenseful tale, augmented by her protagonist’s fascinating profession, which goes beyond detecting forgeries to forensic statement analysis and handwriting analysis [a field in which the author is herself considered an expert]. Apparently the publisher of this terrific series to this point does not plan to publish future entries, which would be unfortunate for the author’s fans. It is to be hoped that Ms. Lowe and Claudia Rose will find another home before too long; it would be a shame if this is the last we will see of the Forensic Handwriting Mysteries.
Highly recommended.
