THE SURROGATE

A contract for surrogacy goes predictably bad in this debut novel told from multiple points of view.

Cally is 20, impressionable, and optimistic in 2001 when she signs the papers to become a surrogate for Hal Olson and Ruth Martin. Cally needs the cash, and Type A Ruth has always dreamed of being a mother. It’s Hal’s second marriage, and he’s only marginally interested in having another child, but Ruth envisions a baby as the glue that will bind her family together. “I believed it would be the ultimate bond,” she says. Days after giving birth, though, Cally splits from the hospital, sneaking the infant out. Cally’s old boyfriend Digger picks them up in his truck and they head north. “When I saw her,” Cally says, “and the way she looked at me, I just…couldn’t [give her away].” She starts daydreaming about a new life with Digger and the infant: “Why couldn’t we be one of those families? Weren’t we just like anybody else?” Hal and Ruth are terrified and understandably angry that she disappeared. Author Halleen’s background as an attorney shines as flashback chapters delve into the minutiae of contract law, but the plot is easy to predict. The story is told from all four characters' points of view, though some of the weaker ones feel like the results of an exercise in Googling cultural touchpoints. “That’s why I play Final Fantasy VII on Playstation,” one of Hal's sons says in a flashback, letting us know he’s squarely in 1997. Cally’s journey away from the hospital, Hal, and Ruth isn’t directed by much of a plan; the search to find her is short. Digger wants nothing to do with Cally’s fantasy of being a family of three; instead, he saw surrogacy as “creepy as hell.” Cally’s journey comes to a mostly inevitable conclusion, forecasted by the chapter where the characters negotiate the contract.

A thriller without many thrills.