The Day I Died

by Lori Rader-Day

Anna Winger knows people better than they know themselves with only a glance—at their handwriting. Hired by companies seeking trustworthy employees and by the lovelorn hoping to find happiness, Anna likes to keep the real mess of other people’s lives at arm’s length and on paper. But when she is called to use her expertise on a ransom note left behind at a murder scene in the small town she and her son have recently moved to, the crime inevitably gets under Anna’s skin. Was the child kidnapped from his home by his own mother, trying to save him from his abusive father? Thirteen years ago, Anna did the same thing for her unborn son, now a troubled teen rebelling against the protected life she’s given him.

The local sheriff wants no part of Anna’s brand of hocus pocus, but he’ll do whatever it takes to bring his community and his office back under control. Anna is able to discern from the note that no one in the little boy’s family has been safe for a long time. And bringing him and his mother home could be the worst possible outcome for them.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Psychological Thriller

408 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2017

About the author

LORI RADER-DAY is the Edgar Award-nominated, Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Wreck Your Heart, The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. Lori’s short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Good Housekeeping, and others. She lives in Chicago, where she is the co-chair of the mystery reader event Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing for Northwestern University. She is a former national president of Sisters in Crime. Visit her at LoriRaderDay.com.

Reviews

[Meredith (Trying to catch up!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Once again, I am in the minority. This book has great reviews, but I struggled to get through it.

I love the title and the intriguing first page. The plot was alluring; a woman, Anna Winger, a handwriting analysis expert, gets pulled into a case after a two-year-old boy goes missing. Anna, single mother to 13-year-old Joshua, is on the run from her past. She has moved Joshua to town after town, trying to elude those who might be looking for her (although come to reveal, she only slightly alters her name, so she couldn’t have been that hard to find. Once settled in Parks, Indiana, Anna and Joshua finally seem to have found a place to settle down for good. However, someone from Anna’s past appears to be looking for her, and when Joshua goes missing, Anna has to face her fears and confront her past.

I found the first 250 pages to be slow moving. Anna got on my nerves, I found her to be whiney and clueless. What bothered me the most was that the first 1/3 of the book is full of holes—this seems to be intentional to not spoil Anna’s “secret past,” and learn about the day she “died." However, when all is revealed it is rather anticlimactic. The book does pick up speed towards the end and the plot intensifies. It was just too late for me.

[Lori Rader-Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look, it's my job to give this book five stars. Plus? Yeah, I like it. I hope you do, too.

[Jayme C (Brunetteslikebookstoo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author gave her own book a 5 star rating, (which irks me!) and though I wish I could agree (I loved Little Pretty Things!) it is just a weak 3 stars for me. I found myself wanting to skim ahead when it dragged, and then again, when it became implausible, so I could finish, and move on to the next book on my list!

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

“The Day I Died” is a thriller with a very slow start. The narrator is Anna Winger, a single mother with a fourteen-year-old son in a small town in Indiana. The reader soon learns that Anna moves frequently and she’s on the run. Author Lori Rader-Day is sparse with her clues about Anna’s past. The reader must have patience in the first half of the novel to really discern what is going on with Anna and her past.

That being said, I had very little patience with Anna. I felt she was self centered and didn’t have much empathy for her and her situation. For example, she wouldn’t let her son know who his family is. She expected an adolescent boy to just believe her that he had no family, all grandparents dead, and no father, no aunts or uncles. Obviously, the kid is disgruntled and she expects him to tow the line and be a blind follower of her. She and her son have moved frequently, with little notice to her son. They just pick up and drive aimlessly until she finds a new town that suits her feelings of the moment. And now she’s surprised he has an attitude.

There are small hints that she’s running from a violent partner. Once the reader understands by the last part of the story that she’s running from true domestic violence it is a bit more understandable the care she takes in remaining anonymous and moving when she is recognized.

That said, another mystery runs concurrently with her mysterious background. A two-year-old boy is missing from her new hometown. Anna is a handwriting analyst and she can provide psychological analysis of the writer of a document. The sheriff of her new hometown asks for her services in notes that have been left at the scene. The sheriff is attempting to discover who took the kid.

The last third of the novel is a worthy thriller. The writing is well done, which allowed me to continue to read even with my frustration. It’s an easy read, although Anna is not likable in my opinion. In the end, I found her more likeable. But likeable characters are not necessary for a good story. The frustration I found is that the author didn’t allow the reader to truly understand her history. For that, I cannot recommend this as a great read.

[Mackey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me say up front that I adore Lori Rader-Day. She is a fellow Midwesterner who resonates well with me. However this wasn't one of my favorite books. The premise is a mother who is on the run from an abusive spouse. She now works as a handwriting analyst for FBI but lives in mortal fear that the abusive spouse will catch up to her current life. Of course her past life collides with her current one and that is where this story lies.

The first half of the book is incredibly slow and confusing. Rader-Day tries so hard not to give too much away too soon so that it all gets garbled and messy. The second half of the book is so much better and more like the writing I'm used to from this author. I wish the entire book had been this good. Overall I think this was just a slump and I still expect great things in the future from Rader-Day. This is a decent thriller, a good read, I just know she's capable of better.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.25* of five, rounded down because it's pretty bland

A GIFT FROM A "FRIEND" WHOSE BIBLIOHOLISM RIVALS MY OWN. *FIST-SHAKE*

My Review: Domestic thrillers aren't always bad. This one is of the un-bad ilk. Anna's life hasn't been easy, or peaceful; it's been marred by violence from every man in it. Of course she has a son. But she's raised him in such a way that he's clear that interpersonal violence isn't an option.

So he runs away from her to find out why she's so het-up about this.

What happens, then, is an extended hunt for and unearthing of Anna's many wounds from source to cessation. Why I recommend it is Author Rader-Day's facility with characterization. I'm less enamored of her exposition and dialogue.

I turned in a slow circle, taking in the empty room. Something wasn't right. What was it? And then I saw. His backpack was missing from the table. "His backpack."

"What?"

"I don't know," I said. A shrill alarm began to ring in my ears, and I raised my voice to be heard over it. "I don't know."

"OK," Joe said. "Let's be calm. What about his backpack?"

"It's not on the table. It's always, always on the table." I thought of the pack's dense bulk, the thump it made when he set it down.

Now, let me be clear: This isn't bad writing. It's, um, uninspired, uninspiring writing IMO, but definitely not bad...the "pack" syllable repeated as often as it is, plosive and glottal and easy to hear, just works better as audio than visual. There is quite a bit of the writing that works as an ear-read or as film dialogue but not as visualization aid. It leaves me, the reader-as-cranial-filmmaker, without any room to decide things for myself. That's not my preference in reading. Hence my less-than-half-star over the base 3. Which, remember!, means "good!"

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Anna Winger gets involved in the investigation of a kidnapping of a little boy and the murder of his nanny. Anna works for the government and for corporations in reading handwriting samples. She gains all types of clues by analyzing people's signature and handwriting. Although she can read other people's secrets, she has some of her own. Anna has lived in multiple states with her 13 year old son and seems to be running from her past which is causing troubles in her own household.

I was intrigued by the title and it's explained in the second half of the book. Anna is the type of flawed character that I like to root for in a story.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the mystery selection in MyBookBox. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I think in part because Rader-Day makes her central character nicely flawed. At times, you can ever say she almost becomes unlikable with some of her decisions. On the other hand, many of the interactions feel organic and very realastic. Nicely done.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads giveaway.

I stayed up late to finish this story. The author’s writing style gripped me from the first and I wanted to keep reading to find out what was happening.

I don’t want to say anymore, because if I do I am sure to let a spoiler slip. And this book it too good to spoil.

[Rachel León]

I'll be interviewing Lori Rader-Day about this novel next month and I will post the link to the interview when it runs.

Here's link to the interview: https://chireviewofbooks.com/2017/04/...

[Judy Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talk about long and boring. I kept stopping every so often but then would force myself to continue reading thinking (hoping) something more was to come. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I found to be exciting about “The Day I Died.” It’s just one long mundane story that is flat, almost lifeless like. I cannot believe this novel is described as “suspenseful” and “gripping.” Far from it.

The story is about Anna and her son, how she moves from town to town in order to not be found. It’s so obvious she’s running away from someone who abused her. That’s a given. For those who love the novel and the characters, I’m not one of them. Sorry people but I did not find anything about Anna that was likeable. If anything, I thought her to be a flake, a woman who really didn’t know if she was coming or going and that her brain was a mess not being able to think clearly. Anna goes back and forth about her responsibilities to her job and son. She always feels she’s neglecting her son when she works; however, when she’s with her son spending time with him she feels her work is suffering. We go back and forth with this one. This woman clearly has no idea how to balance work and family life. It’s obvious her ex was abusive to her right from the start. With respect to her ex, I found some of it to be unrealistic. For example, when she goes to see her ex (who lives with a woman), she spends the night at their home. What abused woman, who did everything possible to never be found by her abuser, would spend a night under the same roof with her abuser? Seriously? Am I the only one thinking WTF? The story itself is just a mish-mash of things that at times don’t make sense or come to fruition. Definitely not a winner in my books.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

This belongs to the (perhaps unfortunate) hybrid genre of chick-lit thriller. It unfolds at the pace of molasses rolling uphill. The protagonist is a handwriting analyst who can tell everything about a person from the slant of their letters and whether loops are closed (controlling) or remain open (sexually frustrated, probably impotent). Her own son doesn't even want to reveal his handwritten items to Mom, understandably. But when juvenile delinquents begin tagging school walls and barn walls around town, she instantly recognizes his handwriting. He disappears (because she is so close-mouthed about his family history, she won't reveal to him that his father and her father were both abusers, and he runs away to find his grandfather and figure out what's going on; probably also because he has no internet access at home (!) - in 2017 (!) - she does, but it's only for work).

I haven't even brought up the main story line, a disappeared toddler, which is just as well, as that saga is even more tedious in its denouements than her son's.

The author explains that the novel began as a short story, and perhaps it should have remained in that form. The alternative was 400 pages of not all that much.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really was intrigued when I read the description for this one and thought the premise was excellent. A woman with a mysterious past learns handwriting analysis to unlock secrets for the FBI (and other willing to pay parties). I felt like the story dragged a fair bit and got completely unbelievable at times. This was one I had to force myself to keep reading, not one that kept me on the edge of my seat. Anna gets involved with the kidnapping of a young boy and murder of his nanny. This case either brings up a lot of her unresolved trauma or she’s been barely functioning for.a while. I would give this author another chance because I did like some of the ideas that went into this one, but overall this was not the thriller I was hoping it would be.

[Joelle Egan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lori Rader-Day introduces what might have been an intriguing new element for an overloaded genre in her latest novel The Day I Died. A handwriting expert with a traumatic history who consults with law enforcement, business and the private sector, Anna Winger can glean information from provided samples in a Sherlockian style. She is an eccentric, guarded and prickly character who over the past thirteen years been perpetually uprooting herself and her teenage son in order to escape a shadowy, menacing presence from her past. As her rebellious son struggles to adjust to their latest new town, Anna is enlisted to help a highly skeptical sheriff with the case of a missing toddler. Continually defensive about her abilities and what they can contribute to the case, Anna is begrudgingly drawn in by the community despite being distracted by her tendency to mistrust and avoid any entanglements. She is tempted to run away again when it seems that her true identity has been discovered and her son becomes increasingly insistent about learning about his origins. Soon events force Anna to return to her childhood home, and some incredible connections crop up between her current work and her own past. Rader-Day skillfully portrays the contentious mother-son relationship, and one is left feeling truly sorry for the teen whose mother is incapable of recognizing how detrimental her decisions have been to his life. The handwriting analysis angle is provided to give the novel a twist, but seems a bit dated given the our increasingly digitized world. So many current thrillers feature a damaged female protagonist armed with a rough exterior and similar issues or backstories that whole sections of bookstores could be devoted to them. So, any differentiators from the typical formula are refreshing—if they can be well-executed and avoid being too “gimmicky” in their deployment. Unfortunately, The Day I Died falls short in both areas. Anna’s feats of handwriting analysis abilities are not exciting enough to overcome the slow pace of the first section of the book, and the plot only starts getting interesting in the final third of the book when Anna returns to her hometown. The coincidences needed to combine Anna’s present and past strain plausibility, and Anna herself is such an alienating character that she is almost a caricature of unlikability. There is also a “romantic” subplot that contributes very little and becomes an add-on that appears forced and unnecessary. Ultimately, The Day I Died is relegated to a merely passable entry in a field that already provides too much rich competition for it to stand out successfully from the crowd.

Thanks to the author, Harper Collins/William Morrow and Library Thing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Karyn Niedert · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Day I Died" was an absolutely phenomenal book that had me absolutely hooked, until it completely fell apart at the end. I'm not kidding, Rader-Day had my full attention until the last couple of chapters when things started to tie together just a little too conveniently to be believable or enjoyable.

Anna Winger is a handwriting expert, trained in examining the written word and explaining the intricacies of the person who wrote the words left on pages. Though she is a respected individual in her field, many in the law enforcement community find this type of profiling to be as close to voodoo as calling in a psychic. When her old friend asks her to look into the local case of a missing boy, she faces the scrutiny of the local PD head on.

Anna is also struggling to raise her 13 year old son on her own. The mystery of her violent past is alluded to quite frequently, and the many moves she and her son have made over the years to ensure bad folks don't catch up to her have placed a mighty strain on her small family.

As the mystery of the missing boy deepens, Anna is thrust in numerous directions. Distrust of the boy’s family, along with her feelings of connection towards the boys’ missing mother leave Anna questioning everyone’s motives.

I’m not happy giving away huge chunks of the end, but will simply state that too many coincidences tidily managed to wrap the ending in a pretty bow. It almost seemed like the author decided she was done writing this book and said the hell with it.

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, the book was terrific until the last three to four chapters. The “plot twists” were unsatisfying and beyond my ability to fully appreciate.

[Corinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I liked the writing and the characters but found the whole thing a bit drawn out and predictable.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day is a very highly recommended compelling mystery/novel psychological suspense. I found it compulsively readable and unputdownable.

Anna Winger is a handwriting analyst who sometimes works with the FBI and law enforcement as well as for private citizens. Anna can look at original samples of handwriting and deduce more about a person than they may want to reveal. She has also been constantly on the move for the last thirteen years in an attempt to hide from her former violent, abusive boyfriend. This time she and Joshua, her thirteen-year-old son, have ended up in a small town in Parks, Indiana. She avoids friendships and any ties with the community she's living in so she can pack up Josh and leave the moment something seems threatening.

Then her FBI contact refers her to Parks Sheriff Russ Keller to assist in the investigation and search for a missing toddler by looking at some written material left behind. The sheriff is reluctant to trust her analysis and she is reluctant to get involved in this small town case. Anna agrees to help, but it places her in close contact with the community and the ghosts of her past. The mother of the toddler is also missing and it seems like the father might be abusive, all of which strikes too close to home for Anna. Did the mother of the boy stage their disappearance to escape abuse?

To complicate matters even more, Josh is starting to rebel, by talking back, hiding his activities, and acting out. Is it because he is a teen or is his behavior linked to the friends he has made in Parks? When Josh disappears too, Anna must disclose parts of her personal life to try and find her son. Her biggest fear is that he went to look for a man he never met, his father, and Anna will have to return to her hometown to find him and confront her past.

Although Anna is very guarded with details into her past, we slowly learn more about her as we also learn more about the case the sheriff is trying to solve - and as she tries to find her son. While the buildup is slow to start, the narrative picked up the pace rather dramatically and then took off at a gallop. Anna is a great character, fully developed and interesting. She has amazing powers of observation and notices many small clues and details along the way.

The writing is excellent and kept my attention throughout, especially as it opens with the titular "On the day I died..." The unraveling of the clues in the intricate cases are interlaced with the slow reveal of Anna's past and what she has been running from for all these years. It all makes for a masterful novel of mystery and suspense along with a powerful statement about abuse. There is a twist that, upon reflection, seems too convenient, but I overlooked it as the action was pretty intense at that point. Once you get through the slow-ish set up, the action and information increase exponentially to the satisfying conclusion.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins.

[John W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lori Rader-Day’s THE DAY I DIED is a suspense thriller focusing on the sacrifices a mother will make for her son. The fast moving storyline follows the protagonist, Anna Winger, as she deals with secrets from the past that influence her life thirteen years later. The author transitions the storyline telling events in Anna’s past. She gives readers as much as needed to help them understand what Anna is processing at the time. Lori Rader-Day gives her readers Anna’s history including how she came to be an expert handwriting analyst doing contract work for the FBI, state and local law enforcement, and corporations. The pace of the storyline starts in high gear and as events unfold the momentum increases to overdrive never slowing down until readers turn the last page.

Readers learn through a transition to the past what has brought Anna Wenger and her son to live in Parks County, Indiana. Part of the backstory of Anna and her son Joshua is Anna’s struggle to protect Joshua and at the same time continues to confuse her son as to why are they are running. With each step into Anna’s the past, Rader-Day continues adding details sending chills up and her readers’ spines. Rader-Day’s story shifts to present day as readers see Anna agreeing to help the county sheriff investigate the potential kidnapping of a two-year-old boy. The author creates support characters, and when they enter the storyline, she provides the characters’ history and the roles they will play.

The author places her readers next to Anna when she meets with Sheriff Russell (Russ) Keller to analyze the handwriting on the ransom note. She describes both Anna’s and Russ’ feeling of attraction to each other. Anna tries to avoid Russ and Russ keeps showing up wanting to know more about Anna. The author keeps her psychological thriller moving forward adding subplots to change directions and add intrigue to the unfolding events. With the storyline increasing momentum at lightning speed, Lori Rader-Day is adding twists and turns keeping readers in the dark and on the edge of their seats as the action takes place. Radar-Day surprises readers who think they know who is behind all the chaos. The story’s increasing action shows readers their conclusions are wrong. THE DAY I DIED focuses on the unfolding events connecting Anna’s past and present. The author creates developments in the plot n the last chapters that deliver a spellbinding and heart-wrenching ending. As readers turn the last page, they will find THE DAY I DIED’S ending will be hard to forget.

[Melissa (Semi Hiatus Until After the Holidays) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rader-Day's latest is gripping, fascinating, and will keep readers guessing until the end. There are a couple of plot twists that go a bit too far, but for the most part, the novel will give thriller readers exactly what they are looking for. Anna's job and abilities as a handwriting expert are unique and help to elevate this outside of the "typical" mystery story. Multiple storylines keep the plot briskly moving along; when one part comes to a crossroads, another picks up speed, all adding to the mysterious atmosphere of the tale and frenetic pace of trying to find a missing person before it's too late.
After escaping a horrific past of her own, Anna Winger makes her living using handwriting analysis to help law enforcement learn the identity of culprits and the motives behind different crimes. When a young boy in her town goes missing, Anna is called upon to look at the note left behind to help the police find any clues possible. All signs point to the fact that the mother took the child, but Anna doesn't think the handwriting tells that story. As they race to find the child, Anna can't help but find parallels between this case and her own harrowing past.
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[Holly West · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Day I Died is a crime novel, but more than that, it's an intimate look at the relationship between a mother and son, who have only each other to rely on. Their lives together work--if you can call living in fear and moving repeatedly to avoid detection working--until the boy is old enough to realize that their circumstances are strange and confusing to him. Why don't they have other family? Why don't they even have friends? Why haven't they put down roots anywhere? How does a mother satisfactorily answer her son's questions without putting their lives at risk?

Of course, a more traditional crime story serves, at least initially, as the novel's backdrop. Anna Winger is a handwriting analyst who is hired to assist in the investigation of a kidnapped child. The county sheriff considers handwriting analysis to be on par with soothsaying, but nevertheless entrusts Anna with a supposed ransom note written by the kidnapped child's mother. Their relationship is tenuous, but he sees something in Anna that we all see as the novel unfolds. A strong but vulnerable woman who is unable to rest until the crime is solved, even when the life she's so carefully created for herself and her son is unraveling before her.

[Francesca · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Note: I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.*

This was my first book by Lori Rader-Day. I was immediately intrigued by the premise and couldn't wait to dive in. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations. I was hoping for an edge-of-my-seat thriller and instead I found myself skimming just to get it over with. The pacing was slow and I struggled to stay engaged as the story went on.

Anne coming to terms with her past and facing her fears was anticlimactic at best. There was quite a bit of build up and then a big let down once everything was revealed.

Anne also got on my nerves. She should have been strong and fierce and instead came across as flaky and contradictory. One minute feeling one way and then doing a complete 180 the next.

Needless to say, this definitely fell short of my expectations.

[Larry Sweazy · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE DAY I DIED firmly establishes Lori-Rader Day as one of the most important voices currently writing mystery fiction. Her taut prose grips the reader and never lets go as she focuses on Anna Winger, a handwriting expert and small-town single mother, who is pulled into a murder investigation that forces her to see the writing on her own wall. Anna not only has to solve the murder, but she has to save the person she loves the most. Rader-Day’s sharp understanding of the human condition has been on display since her brilliant debut, but here, it glows and is even more jaw-dropping and insightful. You won’t want to miss a sentence. Especially the last one.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the last 150 pages in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I was completely absorbed in the world of the characters, the plot, the pacing, all of it. I can't remember the last time my pulse actually jumped up from reading a novel. Makes me think I've missed out by not digging into more mysteries. Have to fix that in '17.

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very disappointed read this while I was reading others it never grabbed me and was hard to follow.

[M.K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb on the cover claims the books is riveting and suspenseful. It is not.

Even though the premise was supposed to be about a handwriting analysis person faking her own death to flee an abusive spouse and working on the case of a missing boy, it spent the majority of the text dealing with Anna's inability to commit, apparently inability logically think anything out, and her bad parenting techniques.

I wanted to like Anna as a character, but I couldn't. She operated out of fear, not strength. Saying she was a strong woman didn't make her one. She also treated her son horribly when she could have tried honesty.

Elements of the book were contrived such as her making a living on handwriting analysis alone no matter where she lived, the helpful man who funnels her business and smooths over trouble whenever it might happen, and finally her ability to flee her ex for years.

I did find it a struggle to read the entire book, but I did persevere because I thought it would get better. There was a tiny suspenseful part near the end. Overall, I found the book lacking in suspense, credibility and in entertainment value.

I struggled with a rating because the concept was good. Much earlier on, the action could have kicked in. Her reactions were more of a mentally disturbed individual than an abused woman. I've had the misfortune to be married to an abusive man who was every bit as Anna's ex, but only spent about the first six months on the run. Even moving several states away and living off the grid, changing my name and everything Anna did, I was still found in about six months. Having lived through the situation, I found Anna's constant cash flow, convenient helpers, and constant flight reaction not believable.

I would have respected the character if she fought more as opposed to mindlessly running whenever something hard happened.

[Yellagirlgc · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Leeanna Winger analyzes handwriting for the FBI, lonelyhearts, as a parlor trick as a mom. Sheriff Russ Keller needs Anna to analyze some writing that may lead to a missing two year old boy believed to have been taken by his mother. Leeanna is on the run from a past that is hinted at.
Aidan being missing was overshadowed by the relationship between Anna and her son Josh which was far more interesting in my opinion. I felt Josh's teen anger with having no answers, past, relatives or permanent home. The kidnapping paled beside the family issue of Anna and son.
It was a pleasant read with no nail biting suspense but kept you reading.

I received a copy for an unbiased review.

[Lisa Alber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Rader-Day's protagonists -- they're conflicted yet vulnerable, sometimes difficult but ultimately likable. They're like us -- contradictory, fallible, yet doing their best. Unlike her first two novels, in THE DAY I DIED, she tells the story of a mom. Anna's troubled relationship with her son is at the heart of this mystery that is more than a mystery. I admire the way Rader-Day developed the various threads in her story: Anna's past, Anna's relationship with her son, a murder mystery, a missing person, a road trip, ultimately, a quest for closure and reconciliation.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

A young child is missing, his teenage babysitter is found murdered. It's assumed he was abducted by his mother. A handwriting expert (Anna) is tasked with assisting the small town police force to find the child. Then Anna's own son disappears. The first half of the book was slow and I didn't really care about Anna. Details about her past and motivations are vague and I realize that is to build the suspense, but it was totally unnecessary. [There is no shocking reveal, she was running from an abusive relationship, as you will suspect from the beginning].