The Line Between Here and Gone

The Line Between Here and Gone
Andrea Kane
Published by Harlequin MIRA
Available on Amazon.com.
400 pages
Thanks to NetGalley for the preview.
4 / 5 cupcakes


What would you do if your month old infant faces a life threatening illness for which his only possible chance at survival is a bone marrow transplant with his father as the donor, only the father is missing? What would you do? You would do anything to save your child, wouldn't you?

Amanda Gleason sure would.

In Andrea Kane's wonderful The Line Between Here and Gone, Amanda faces this awful situation. Her baby son is battling one awful illness after another, and he desperately needs a bone marrow transplant in order to survive. Amanda is not a candidate, but the doctor believes Paul, the baby's father, would be. Unfortunately, he is gone - assumed dead, although his body was never found. Then one day, a friend sends Amanda a picture of someone who looks an awful lot like Paul on a street in Washington, DC. Amanda takes the photo to Forensic Instincts, an unconventional group of investigators, and begs them to help her find out what happened to her baby daddy. The group agrees.

There are a LOT of twists and turns to this story, but they are easy to follow (thank you, Andrea Kane). There is nothing so convoluted here that you cannot figure out what is happening, and even with all of the characters and plot twists, you are as emotionally invested as the Forensics Instincts people, who feel the clock ticking. FI's Casey Woods is so frantic that she tries to enlist the aid of her FBI boyfriend:

"It might involve a crime family as well as a national politician. We don't know. We will know, because we wouldn't have it nay other way. But an infant's life is on the line. We don't have the luxury of time. And you have the ability and resources to accelerate the process. So anything you could find out would be crucial to our search for Paul Everett." 

In addition to the mystery and suspense, there are some romantic entanglements as well. Casey begs her boyfriend for help, but he can't breach the FBI. Two of FI's staffers are attracted to each other, but reluctant to act upon it. If it seems like this would be distracting in a tense thriller, you're wrong. The romance helps lighten a very heavy book. Any time a baby's life hangs in the balance, you are in for a rough time.

This is a really good book, folks. It hooks you immediately and you will not be able to stop until you find out what happened to Paul and why. And, of course, you will want to know what happens to Amanda's baby. It isn't perfect - there are a couple of twists that are not fully or well explained - but it's good.