I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Jennifer McMahon has the most disturbing covers in the book business.....real pictures of creepy children staring out at you. It's like a whole shelf of "Children of the Corn" and "Village of the Damned" at the bookstore. I told you before that I read "Island of Lost Girls" on vacation and did not want to do anything else but read. I was so anxious to read "Dismantled", McMahon's latest. Wow! It did not disappoint!
One of McMahon's strong points is going between time periods throughout her stories. With a less-talented author, this can be extremely jarring. In "Dismantled", the effect is seamless, alternating between the summer when four people formed the Dismantlers and a decade later, when two of them are unhappily married with child. This child, Emma, is desperate to get her parents back together. One seemingly innocent act sets off a chilling chain of events that will answer the questions about the summer of the Dismantlers.
Part murder mystery, part character study, part ghost story, I can easily see this turned into a movie directed by Hitchcock, if he was alive. The spine-tingling ending will make your heart beat out of your chest.
MY RATING - 5
