THE PURPLE RIBBON

A woman who was assaulted decades earlier meets her assailant with further tragic consequences in Lyman’s thriller.

In a 2024 prologue, college girls stumble onto a dead body alongside a lakeside trail in central Florida. The narrative jumps back to 2000. Chelsea Whitlock, 11, is abducted in a Fort Pierce, Florida, forest and awakens beaten, alone, and wearing a new purple ribbon in her hair. The police rescue her some 10 hours later. She begins therapy sessions with Ethyle Silverman, who alerts Chelsea’s mom, Sammi, that Chelsea’s nausea signals pregnancy. Sammi takes Chelsea to Tampa to deliver the baby and give it up for adoption. As this is unfolding, J. Scott Anderson, 29, worried about a violence-laden entry in his journal that he doesn’t remember writing, consults with Port St. Lucie therapist Joel Goldberg. Goldberg uncovers Scott’s dissociative identity disorder and learns that Scott’s alter ego called “Nathan” was furious about the death of Scott’s purple-ribbon-wearing sister years before. With Goldberg’s help, Scott’s other personalities are kept dormant, and he marries and has children. Meanwhile, Chelsea accelerates through her studies and becomes a children’s advocate lawyer serving in Fort Pierce. She becomes sexually involved with grad student volunteer Tyler, foregoing protection since being told she was unlikely to conceive again. Then, to her surprise, Chelsea becomes pregnant, and after some initial anger from Tyler, the couple becomes engaged, and daughter Adalynn is born. In 2023, Adalynn, who’s a year old, requires a donor to address a bone marrow deficiency, leading to a shocking DNA discovery. Chelsea, Scott, and Tyler all then experience life-alerting ramifications, with additional purple ribbons also coming into play.

Lyman has conjured an engaging thriller kickstarted by the discovery of an unidentified dead body and followed by a chilling depiction of Chelsea’s assault and its immediate aftermath. The book provides several dramatic scenes limning how the novel’s therapists address trauma with both Chelsea and Scott. For example, Silverman tells Chelsea, “The episode you had at twenty-one might have been triggered by the ten year anniversary of your abduction, though I’m not completely convinced. We may never come to know what caused that one.” A subplot exploring the struggles of Chelsea’s parents following the assault and their reliance on their faith adds dimension to the tale. While several sections dwell on banal information, like Chelsea’s ongoing check-ins with longtime friend Cassi, these elements also stoke suspense while we’re waiting for the next bomb to drop. And indeed, several bombs do drop, but they prompt some plot quibbles. One detail in particular, which is withheld until the end, will leave readers wondering why that pertinent information wasn’t introduced earlier, and a purple ribbon reappearing late in the game doesn’t seem to make much sense either. Chelsea’s controlling pre-Tyler boyfriend also veers a bit into cartoon villain territory, with him reappearing in final pages to vow that, “She will be mine no matter what it takes.” Still, the narrative never dawdles, and Lyman throws tantalizing teasers into the end to whet the appetite for what may be next.

A psychologically astute page-turner with farfetched but intriguing plot twists.