You don’t know me….
By Susan May Warren
Reviewed by Martha Artyomenko
Claire O’Reilly has grieved for her daughter Deidre for a long time. When Deidre chose to use drugs and was sucked into a vortex of horror, nothing still prepared her for claiming her daughter’s body.
Annalise Decker is a model mother and citizen, from supporting her husband in his political campaign, to cheering for her daughter on the soccer team; she appears to be just that. No one knows that she is really in the Witness protection program, and Deidre O’Reilly, long since thought dead, is about to come alive once more.
Twenty years is a long time to keep a secret from everyone, and I am sure that if you thought it would save everyone you loved from pain, suffering and even death, you could do it…but I was still perplexed at the length of time it took her to tell her husband. I could understand not telling the other family members, but I believe her husband deserved to know, long before she told him.
However, that would not maybe have made as great of a story! Ms. Warren takes you on a journey of pain, betrayal, but also, true love and forgiveness. The story wrapped and set in the tiny northern MN town, made it real to me as the characters are flawed, mess up and really want to do what is right, but the choices are not as clear as you wish they were.
I loved how Ms. Warren showed the picture of love in this story. Annalise was willing to give up her own happiness to save the lives of those she loved. Her husband was willing to risk everything to have her in their lives. Her mother in law was trying to show love by protecting her family from what she thought was a health tragedy. We see in all the ways it was demonstrated, it was not always the right thing to do.
This story is full of mystery, intrigue and suspense, but most of all it shows the picture of love and demonstrates the picture of Christ’s love for us, through the story of frail human beings.
-Martha
