Mystery Madness discussion

This is our discussion thread for chapters 9-12. If you've already finished you can skip to the thread for final thoughts.

I read through chapter 12 and was happy to see that finally the truth has come to light. I was surprised that the "kidnapping" had not been premeditated. I was imagining something more nefarious! LOL! I guess I read a lot of mysteries. I thought that the analogy that Norma used about her mother picking her up like a stray kitten was a good one. The person that I have the most difficult time understanding was the father, being a judge and all. Of course that doesn't really mean anything, I just finished The Frozen River, and in that book the judge was one of the worst villains. It just goes to show how much a lie can grow larger and larger the longer you let it grow.

Right - why would a judge not realize how wrong this kidnapping was? Sure, he wanted his wife to be happy, but most judges (hopefully) don't want to become criminals. A reasonable judge in that situation would have found a way to return the child, you would think.

I thought it was interesting that they moved to a different town and thought that was all they needed to do. I guess it was the 60s so it was easier to hide things then, but it seems as a public figure that it would be noticeable that a judge had recently acquired a kid. But I guess people would just assume that they adopted her through regular means.

Yes, moving one town away would not do in today's world I think. I'm sure it's assumed that a judge of all people would do things right. I'm wondering if any paperwork was filed. Nothing was ever said about her birth certificate. She would have needed some legal documents to just get through life.