WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS

5 stars out of 5

Oh my, what a page-turner this is! Well okay, the ending is a titch on the sappy side, but hey - getting there was a total delight. My Kindle swipe finger sure got a workout amid all the twists and turns.

It begins with a near-perfect family: Jason Bennett, a much-in-demand court reporter who can read lips, a professional photographer wife Lucinda and two talented kids, Allison and Ethan. One evening, a pickup truck nearly runs their car down on a rural road; when they stop, two men get out of the truck, and the encounter ends in horror as one of the kids is shot. Before they can begin to deal with that, though, the FBI enters the scene to explain that the men were part of a dangerous crime family - and insist that Jason and his family enter the witness protection program immediately.

That's a hard sell because it means absolutely zero contact with anyone they ever knew and loved, including Lucinda's elderly mother in a nursing facility. Still, the alternative - that their family is in imminent danger of being killed - is less palatable, so they reluctantly agree. Soon thereafter, they learn it was a smart move, but they can't fathom how they'll be able to assume new identities - which, while they're temporarily in a safe house, they don't even have yet - and continue for the rest of their lives. The only comfort, if it can be called that, is that the two FBI agents assigned to "babysit" them are sympathetic and go the extra mile to keep them in the loop when it comes to finding and arresting the bad guys.

But as public sentiment sours toward the Bennetts simply because they suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth, Jason decides to get to the bottom of things as much as he can while being denied contact with any other humans, even on social media. What he learns isn't pretty, including one family secret that threatens his marriage and that not everyone is who he or she claims to be. What Jason must determine, though, is what the real connection is between someone in his family and whoever's out to get them - and thus, who in his own family is the real target.

Of course, I won't tell, except to say that Jason's route to the truth makes for an action-packed trip. This one's a don't-miss in my book - many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. 

What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline (G.P. Putnam's Sons, March 2022); 392 pp.