The Babysitter — Andrew Coburn

Murder and abduction perpetrated for no apparent reason shatter a suburban home in this tightly written psychological suspense novel. John and Merle Wright's horror begins when they come home to find their babysitter bludgeoned to death and their child gone. Then the phone calls begin.

It is a crime without clues, a kidnapping without a ransom note, and the biggest mystery is the babysitter who, having told lies within lies to create an identity for herself, becomes a phantom in death, a body buried under a name that couldn't have been hers.

In the hunt for the victim's real identity is the only hope that the Wrights have for learning their child's fate. They sift through what she had told them about herself, groping for a half-truth that will give them a lead. In the search, boundaries begin to blur; the past impinges on the present; the ghosts that haunted Paula Aherne in life become flesh and blood as the Wrights trace her through run-down mill towns and Boston's colorful, teeming North End; it is no longer clear who is stalking whom.

Watching over the Wrights, helping them when he can, is the local police chief, whose irascible nature and frustration with the case make him an uncertain ally. At every turn the Wrights encounter the sinister presence of the federal agents in charge of the investigation. They play the game by different rules, and for their own ends. They will tell the Wrights nothing. Not until the final wrenching pages do we, or the Wrights, learn why their daughter has been taken -- or whether she is still alive.