REVIEW: THE ESCAPE ARTIST, BY DIANE CHAMBERLAIN

 

 

When Susanna Miller loses custody of her 11-month old son Tyler to her ex-husband Jim and his new wife Peggy, she is afraid that her life is over.

From the moment she first discovered that Jim was cheating on her with Peggy, right after she discovered she was pregnant, she has been in free fall, descending into the darkness that will soon become her life.

Her best friend Linc Sebastian, who lived next door to her in childhood and has now become her lover and her support system, believes that they can somehow make it anyway.

But what Susanna does next will change all of their lives.

She has planned ahead, and the morning of the day she was supposed to turn over Tyler, she is on the run, with a new identity, some cash, and a plan. Her journey takes her across country from Boulder, Colorado, to Annapolis, Maryland, where she slowly begins anew as Kimberly Stratton.

The Escape Artist was a riveting story that had a few implausible twists and turns, but I couldn’t stop reading it. Soon I was immersed with Kimberly in her new life with her new friends, like an artist named Adam Soria and his sister Jessie. And in her cute apartment in an old Victorian, she finds support from her new landlady Ellen and her neighbor Lucy.

But the secrets she must hide keep her from truly connecting, and then she makes a dark discovery that seems to threaten the new life and bring everything to a screeching halt.

What is the meaning of the strange file Kim has found on the used computer she bought? What happened the night someone broke into her apartment, making her feel totally unsafe again?

In the end, everything fell into place pretty neatly, and while I was happy with the conclusions, it all felt a little bit unlikely. Still an enjoyable read for fans of Chamberlain and for all those who can relate to family/custody situations. 4.0 stars.