LEARNING TO SWIM

In Henry's debut novel, a woman goes to great lengths to protect a boy she pulls out of a frigid lake.

Troy Chance happened to be looking at a ferry traveling across Lake Champlain in the opposite direction from hers when she sees what looks like a little boy being thrown overboard. Without thinking, she jumps in and rescues the lad, whose name turns out to be Paul. Instead of taking him to the authorities, though, she brings him home, telling herself that the police would most likely put the boy in foster care, and maybe even inadvertently return him to whoever had thrown him in in the first place. After a few days, Paul, who speaks only French, reveals that he had been kidnapped along with his mother, but that she had been killed by the kidnappers. He also says his father’s name is Philippe Dumond, and after a quick Internet search, Troy has a business address in Ottawa. After meeting Philippe, she decides that he could not have been responsible for the kidnapping, no matter what the police might think, and she returns Paul to him. Sensing the bond that has formed between Paul and Troy, Philippe asks her to stay for a few weeks until the boy settles back into his life. Things go well for a while, but before long it becomes clear that Paul is still in danger, and Troy decides that he will never be safe until his kidnappers are captured. This novel has a lot going for it—a compelling plot, a pervading sense of foreboding, well-constructed characters—but the prose is too often bogged down by distractingly insignificant details. We learn how Troy would have eaten sausages and pancakes if the housekeeper wasn’t there, what kind of bagel her brother likes, etc. This overabundance of extraneous details creates unnecessary drag.

Well-wrought for the most part, if occasionally a little waterlogged.