From My Blog...[return][return]Clayton Falls is receiving more recognition than ever before, but that is not necessarily good for the town located on Vancouver Island in Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. The story opens up with Annie O’Sullivan’s first therapy session with her new therapist, Nadine. Annie O’Sullivan was kidnapped and held hostage for a year, now she is trying to put the pieces of her life back together yet something is still not quite right. Still Missing is told primarily through Annie telling her tale of sorrow and horror over twenty-six therapy sessions. While the kidnapping itself was not frightening to read about, primarily because it is told after the fact, what Annie endured was creepy. I really, really wanted to like the character of Annie and it sounds dreadful to say I disliked the fictional victim, but I truly did, which made it all the more difficult for me to feel anything towards the character. I had high hopes that Still Missing would be suspenseful, based on the cover blurbs, and it was not. It was indeed depressing, horrific, foul, and at times mysterious, however there was a lack of suspense. There is an extremely odd twist to Annie’s tale of horror, which I cannot go into without adding spoilers, which I am still mulling over, but it just did not make sense to me. Stevens’ descriptions were very detailed and easy to envision with the story line told in a clear and concise manner, with plenty of foul language, and enough horror suffered by Annie to make a reader cringe. My main issues were the twist toward the end, which I cannot mention, and a complete lack of suspense, considering the cover lends the impression it will be a suspenseful novel. Still Missing is a good debut novel, I just wish I had liked it as much as I thought I was going to.