In the intriguing thriller Finding Grace, the seventh novel from Janis Thomas (What Remains True), the uneasy reunion of an estranged mother and daughter evolves into a cross-country road trip. The journey, fueled by a paranormal undercurrent, reveals the choices each woman has made that have shaped their personalities.
By her own admission, Grace Daniels was not a good mother to her daughter, Louise, whom she hasn't seen in five years. Unstable Grace would disappear for weeks, even months at a time, during Louise's childhood, including abandoning her at a Mexican restaurant when she was six years old. Louise, now age 33, works as a bartender, lives a spartan life in a tiny New York apartment and avoids long-term relationships.
Louise learns her mother is in New York when Bellevue Hospital informs her that Grace has been admitted; she had been found dressed in only her underwear, singing to herself on the George Washington Bridge. The psychiatrists want to commit Grace permanently. Against her better judgment, Louise has Grace discharged, giving in to her mother's demands that they drive to California to rescue a girl Grace insists in in danger, 12-year-old Melanie.
Finding Grace smoothly incorporates the perspectives of Louise and Grace, and of Melanie, whose life with her fourth set of foster parents is unraveling in alarming ways. The contentious trip becomes a poignant meeting of the minds as resentful Louise and manipulative Grace learn secrets about each other. The quest to help Melanie grows into an emotional search for themselves. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer