LAST PLACE SEEN

In Harris’ novel, a woman’s marriage is tested after her struggling ex-convict husband becomes a prime suspect in a young girl’s kidnapping.

In San Jose, California,Tiana Williams puts in 60-hour workweeks as the social media manager of a small startupwhile her stay-at-home husband, Jay, tends to their young son. Jay’s had four job offers rescinded after employers learned that he served an 18-month prison sentence for killing his father in self-defense:“For every stride he took forward, society fought against him, knocking him to his knees.” Another blow comes when police officers take him in for questioning in the disappearance of a young girl, Zoe Miller, who was at a Walmart at the same time he was. Later, Tiana’s district attorney father tells her that the missing girl is the daughter of a woman he’s having an affair with—and that’s not the only secret surrounding the girl. Then Devon Price, Tiana’s first love and ex-fiance, reappears; he abandoned her when she became pregnant with their child, and her father insisted she give up the infant for adoption. Devon, a venture capitalist, insinuates himself into the search for Zoe, and plants seeds in Tiana’s mind that Jay may be guilty. “Tiana and I are having more drama,” Jay tells his brother at one point, and some readers may feel that it’s simply too much. Fans of Tyler Perry’s serious films, however, will enjoy this melodramatic story of (mostly) good people caught up in bad situations, and who rely on love and faith to persevere. The chapters are short and the pages fly by with major revelations and marital and family crises, which combine to add a measure of suspense to the conclusion. Harris also has a deft touch with issues involving race: “As a Black man in America, any action that law enforcement considered aggressive could end with him losing his life, and Jay had too much to live for.” Jay’s plight also raises important issues regarding American society’s ill treatment of former prisoners trying to rebuild their lives.

An often involving tale, despite its heavy melodrama.