Night of Clear Choice

by Doris Miles Disney

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821725165
• ISBN13: 9780821725160
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Zebra Books
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

What if DNA testing hadn't been invented yet?

When a child is kidnapped in the 1950s without the sophisticated forensics technology of today, you have to use "zee leetle grey cells," as Hercule Poirot would say. Or you would have to ride a wave of suspense until the ending totally blindsides you. I enjoyed the ride very much.

Surprisingly good little thriller

An interesting tale of a kidnapping, a child thought lost forever, and then found---- in a time before DNA testing ! One terrible evening in the early 1950s, a little girl is snatched from a wealthy but troubled family, the Talbots. This includes her pretty young mother, her father (crippled by a fire when the child was a baby), her cold bland uncle, his chirpy wife and their dull baby son, and the adoring domineering grandmother who would happily have traded the children's places. Though the ransom is paid, years go by before the little girl's fate is discovered. 14 tears later, a housewife and former waitress is killed in a car accident. After a deathbed chat, her husband shows authorities a child's locket, which once belonged to the kidnapped toddler, found among his wife's belongings. More importantly, according to what his late wife had confessed, he presents his teenaged stepdaughter, Ann, as the long-missing heiress. The story is that his wife (grieving over her own dead young daughter) had found the child abandoned, apparently by the kidnapper, on her travels long ago, and impulsively decided to keep and raise her. The bewildered, nice-girl Ann, who of course has no real memory of her toddler years, bears quite a resemblance to the missing Anne (yes, the waitress even kept the child's name). 1960s blood tests can't prove she's the missing child, but don't rule it out, either. These factors, and the waitress's murky, checquered past before her marriage, are enough to convince most of the Talbots, especially the grandmother, that Ann may, indeed, be the former pampered tot. Almost everybody, that is, except ONE--- soon after the girl comes to live in the mansion, she finds vicious notes scribbled on her mirror, her life is threatened, and a suspicious death follows... Perhaps you'll guess who the culprit is before the closing chapters. But along the way, Disney has layered the story with gradual revelations of increasing intensity, some keen psychological insights for a "B" mystery, and comes to a truly harrowing climax. All around, a very satisfying (if short) read for fans of this genre, and even those who may not be, but who enjoy a well-crafted story.