There's No Place Like This-Cecilia Ahern

There's No Place Like This
Cecilia Ahern
Hyperion, Jan 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9781401301880

In Ireland, ten year old Jenny-May Butler vanished without a trace. The Garda investigated but found no clues. Her classmate Sandy Shortt wonders what happened to Jenny-May and for that matter, possessions that seem to just vanish in thin air.

Twenty-four years later Sandy remains obsessed with things going missing as she quit being a Garda to go private in order to concentrate on finding missing people. However, this time while she was to meet a client she goes missing. This is ironic as her job is to find the vanished and she is an intimidating 6”1’ so cannot hide in a crowd. Sandy has no idea where she is. However, she notices plenty of junk lying around like keys, shoes, photos etc. that are those things that just seem to vanish for no logical cause. She tries to retrace her jog, but fails to return from here. She thinks of her client Jack Rutledge whose brother is missing and her first meeting at fourteen with school psychiatrist Gregory Burton who she told she just wants to know where missing things go like a sock disappearing from the washer. She begins to understand that this place is where missing things and people go, but not how to get back.

This is a delightful fanciful tale in which “Here” is a fun concept. The lead character is a strong person who holds the story line together while the support cast is solid. Although there is no explanation as to why “Here” exists; it just is; readers will enjoy this whimsical visit to a place like no other as it just in the fertile imagination of Cecilia Ahern.

Harriet Klausner