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Invisible Girl
Surviving a lifetime of her father's secrets, schemes and whispers of veiled conspiracies, Maggie Malone has always felt invisible — to her father, and to the world who could never understand her. And now she must trace the steps of her ghost-father to find out who wanted him dead.
When Maggie's criminally inclined brother shows up at her apartment in the middle of the night severely beaten, she's certain it has something to do with their father — a highly secretive, shifty Vietnam vet, always on the run and impossible to know. They haven't heard from him in months, which isn't unusual. But they soon discover that he isn't just missing. He's been killed.
As secrets from her father's murky past are uncovered, Maggie is led back to her family's roots in the flames of Vietnam. Who was Jimmy Malone? What became of a tiny baby girl sent to America in Operation Babylift? And who are the shadowy figures who will stop at nothing to prevent the secrets of the jungle from coming to light, even if it means murder?
When Maggie's criminally inclined brother shows up at her apartment in the middle of the night severely beaten, she's certain it has something to do with their father — a highly secretive, shifty Vietnam vet, always on the run and impossible to know. They haven't heard from him in months, which isn't unusual. But they soon discover that he isn't just missing. He's been killed.
As secrets from her father's murky past are uncovered, Maggie is led back to her family's roots in the flames of Vietnam. Who was Jimmy Malone? What became of a tiny baby girl sent to America in Operation Babylift? And who are the shadowy figures who will stop at nothing to prevent the secrets of the jungle from coming to light, even if it means murder?
272 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2006
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2015
Born of an American father and the woman he fell in love with in Vietnam and was able to ship out of there at the end of the war, Maggie and her elder brother Danny have grown up knowing little of their mother's world -- not least because she committed suicide when they were kids. Now Maggie's managing the bar her father bought in Hell's Kitchen and dating a cop, Bobby, while Danny's running with a rough crowd. One night Danny arrives on Maggie's doorstep in rough shape, having beat beaten to a pulp for no apparent reason by three men whom he suspects were cops or feds. Add in that Maggie hears that her father, absent from home for months, has turned up dead. What's going on?
The answer lies in her parents' time in Vietnam and what they endured there, both separately and together, and in the fate of the elder half-sister Maggie never knew she had, the product of a vicious rape of her mother by a US soldier who's now being groomed for the White House . . .
This is a perfectly serviceable thriller with a lot to like. The Vietnamese sections are particularly vivid, and I admired the skill with which Hudson was able to juggle her three timelines (Vietnam, the time of Maggie's childhood, and now). But somehow I found difficulty becoming fully involved in the proceedings. Part of this, I know, was that I felt contempt for a couple of the characters I think I was supposed to like; another part was that some of the plot turns seemed very contrived (and there's an absurd one at the end that Hudson's editor ought to have removed with a chainsaw, then burnt). Other than that, I guess it was that the book just didn't grab me. It may grab you.
The answer lies in her parents' time in Vietnam and what they endured there, both separately and together, and in the fate of the elder half-sister Maggie never knew she had, the product of a vicious rape of her mother by a US soldier who's now being groomed for the White House . . .
This is a perfectly serviceable thriller with a lot to like. The Vietnamese sections are particularly vivid, and I admired the skill with which Hudson was able to juggle her three timelines (Vietnam, the time of Maggie's childhood, and now). But somehow I found difficulty becoming fully involved in the proceedings. Part of this, I know, was that I felt contempt for a couple of the characters I think I was supposed to like; another part was that some of the plot turns seemed very contrived (and there's an absurd one at the end that Hudson's editor ought to have removed with a chainsaw, then burnt). Other than that, I guess it was that the book just didn't grab me. It may grab you.
August 16, 2008
Not incredible, but good. I liked the flawed, loveable characters. Maybe I took a little issue with how cliche some of it could be, especially the little "moments" towards the end.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews