Author:  Chevy Stevens
Title:  Still Missing 
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

While a good action novel keeps a reader turning page after page to find out what is going to happen in the physical world, psychological thrillers are written so that the reader moves beyond the material circumstances and into the minds and motives of the subjects. Some criminals are known for their methods, others for their madness. Chevy Stevens, in her new book Still Missing, focuses her narrative on the psychosis of each character in the story.

Annie O'Sullivan is a realtor in a fictional town on Canada's Vancouver Island. She is abducted one evening while hosting an open house at one of her listed properties. From the outset the reader knows she physically survives the crime as the novel is a retelling of the kidnapping by Annie to her therapist. What the reader doesn't know are the details, the reasons, how she got away (or was rescued), and the final outcome. 

The first two-thirds of the book relate the kidnapping story while the last third is reserved for Annie's attempted reentry into her pre-abduction life. When Annie is freed from her captor, whom she refers to as ‘The Freak,' her life is still in shambles. Though she is no longer physically a prisoner, she is still very much locked up emotionally and relationally. Annie discovers that she is ‘Still Missing' as long as there are questions to the motives behind her abduction—most importantly was The Freak acting on his own or were there other players involved in her crime? Is her life still in danger? Stevens does a good job of casting doubts on the intentions of various characters in Annie's life. She includes several surprise elements throughout the story, and it is a hard book to put down.

There were times, however, that I wanted to put it down. Stevens goes into gory details about the abuse Annie experiences during her kidnapping. Having read a real life biography of a woman who was rescued from human trafficking (The Slave Across the Street by Theresa Flores), I know that stories can be told in a way that emphasize the life-altering repercussions of abuse long after the cruelty is over, without having to go into such graphic detail. The repeated rape scenes in Still Missing could have been treated in a much more delicate manner.

Though it felt like Stevens was aiming for a Hannibal (The Silence of the Lambs) styled psychopath, her Freak fell a bit short. His cruelty lacked being clever or original and his own back-story was too far-fetched to be believed. Though Annie, at times, developed some empathy for him, as a reader I never did. In the end he is forgettable; it is just the pain of what he has stolen from Annie that lingers.

If you enjoy reading promising, new authors, then keep Chevy Stevens in mind; she is creative and talented. Perhaps her subsequent novels will show some needed restraint. This first book might be better experienced as a movie if the director keeps a close eye on how to share Stevens' narrative while aiming a PG-13 rating.

 **This review first published on August 9, 2010.