Shorter and once again..
.. the errors creep back in, Silver's favourites; misnamed characters, mistakes with verb tenses and a rather odd "he swung his leg over his shoulder". Writing with Page had improved Silver's work head and shoulders above her solo novels so to find the second novel in a row dropping into old issues is greatly disappointing.
Artemis gets drawn into this new case by Xander himself as a 6 year old girl, Tina Frost, disappears on her way to school. Almost immediately Xander puts the town under quarantine blocking anyone from leaving and stopping new arrivals from turning up. Arti's most recent guest at the Manor, Daphne, who is recovering from surgery and visiting family, is trapped and Arti feels obliged to continue to host the friendly witch while the investigation takes place.
Lara is also still staying at the Manor so with two guests Arti's got plenty to do but Xander has asked her to help and she's not going to miss out on the opportunity. Tina lives with her father, her mother's battle with alcoholism having destroyed their marriage, she's worked hard to turn her life around but could she have spirited her daughter away out of desperation. The perfect, obsessively clean house, the child's bedroom ready and waiting for Tina worry Arti and Xander especially when Tina's backpack is found close by.
With the whole community drawing together to search for Tina and time slipping away can Xander keep the quarantine in place long enough to catch a kidnapper?
The romance is painfully slow.. really too slow.