Vanishing Acts

By Jodi Picoult
Published by Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Washington Square Press trade paperback edition November 2005

Vanishing Acts is a book of memory. Is what we remember really what happened? Are childhood memories really remembered or are they a mix of partial memory and stories we've been told? If you were traumatised, would you remember? Would you want to?

As usual, Jodi Picoult doesn't just engage our reading mind, she engages our questioning mind. You simply cannot read one of her novels without bringing away a hundred questions and wondering what people you know would do if placed in the same situation as Picoult's characters.

This novel centres around Delia Hopkins, who works with her bloodhound to find missing persons. The other characters revolve around Delia: Eric, her fiance; Sophie, her 5-year-old daughter; Fitz, her lifelong friend; and Andrew, her father.

Delia has memories she can never quite place, but she is forced to come face to face with them the day the police arrive at her door to make an arrest.

We are taken from New Hampshire to Arizona via the court system never knowing which characters to trust or believe. What you can believe is this is another Jodi Picoult page-turner from beginning to end.