April 25, 2016
High school student Nadine Jessup, the heroine of this derivative thriller from Palmer (Desperate), lives with her divorced, alcoholic mother, Carolyn, in Potomac, Md. Tired of taking care of Carolyn and certain that neither of her parents wants her, Nadine takes off for Union Station in Washington, D.C., where she's targeted by a predator. The naive teen believes the man's pitch that he runs an entertainment agency and that she has the look he's been searching for. A month later, a distraught Carolyn calls on Virginia PI Angie DeRose, who specializes in missing person cases. Angie searches for Nadine, but after Angie's mother's sudden death, the investigator finds herself increasingly distracted by her own family concerns. Frequent excerpts from Nadine's diary, which detail her terrible fate as she's forced into a life of sexual slavery, fail to convince. Palmer has displayed more ingenuity at plotting and created more sympathetic and complex characters in his other books. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.
May 1, 2016
Palmer has a gift for creating ordinary people and putting them through extraordinary situations, all while keeping the story believable. Forgive Me is no exception. A young woman named Nadine is fed up with her alcoholic mom and absent father; naturally, after meeting a man who says she would be perfect for his next film, she runs away with him. Angie DeRose is a PI who specializes in finding and rescuing runaways, so when she lands the assignment, she's optimistic she will find Nadine. Meanwhile, Angie's mom unexpectedly passes away. While going through her mother's possessions, she finds a photo of a little girl with a message scrawled on the back, May God forgive me. Who is the girl? Angie begins to dig for answers. The two plots feel a little disjointed, but Palmer is a gifted enough storyteller to keep readers engaged on both fronts. Readers of Harlan Coben will feel right at home here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)