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Go ahead and root for the kidnapper. Bernice Click, the protagonist of Becker’s new novel, has kidnapped the daughter she gave up for adoption five years earlier and is on her way to Tucson, kid in tow. Along for the ride is Landis, a slightly more grounded, if less assertive, boyfriend who’s aboard for the felony because he wants to keep Bernice safe.
Bernice’s impulsiveness drives the narrative. She gave up Emily to a born-again couple because she doubted her ability to raise her, but when she doubts her doubts, she takes her back. While Landis tries to provide the steady hand, her suspicions that he’s going to leave her force him to leave. Landis provides a fascinating counterpoint to Bernice’s wilder ways. Though he’s something of a vessel for the reader, an oasis of sanity in the midst of a kidnapping-cum-road trip, he’s not much comfort. After Landis leaves Bernice, he drives across the country with everything he owns in his car, and that depressing image alone is capable of convincing the reader that the stable life is no more worthwhile.
There are allowances the reader must grant Becker, particularly a whopper of a coincidence midway through the book that allows the plot to click, but it’s forgivable, largely because the plot is less interesting than the characters (which is saying something in a child-abduction story). The dichotomy of Bernice and Landis is the sort of thing that makes for great fiction, allowing Becker to explore recognizable emotions all along the spectrum of control.
