Learning to Swim

I am about  65% through Learning to Swim by Sara Henry.  I actually saw this title on the Cincinnati Public Library downloadables page and it sounded really intriguing.  I had never heard of the author before, but I really enjoy her style and the plot is engaging.

Summary:
Troy (a girl) is riding on a ferry near Virginia.  She sees another ferry crossing paths with hers and sees a young child being thrown overboard.  She sees his eyes specifically, pleading with hers and makes the snap decision to jump in.  She swims towards where she saw him go under and eventually rescues him.  After a long swim to shore, she discovers two somewhat strange things: no one is waiting for him (she was expecting ambulances and a worried set of parents) and there is an adult sweatshirt tied around him, binding his arms to his body so he can't move.  This was intentional.  Troy probably doesn't make the best decision here.  She fails to involve authorities and takes the boy back to her house.  She feeds and bathes him and makes sure he is comfortable and then tries to investigate who he is and who did this to him.  Paul, the boy, is Canadian and eventually reveals to Troy that he and his mother were kidnapped together.  His mother was killed and he was kept in a room for months before thrown off the ferry.  His father is still living in Canada.

Troy decides to go and see the father for herself to determine if she thinks he is innocent or was involved in the kidnapping.  After their initial visit, she feels that the father, Phillipe, is innocent and therefore reunites the boy with his dad.  Paul has really bonded with Troy though, and so Troy accompanies the boy to Canada and stays in the family house for awhile to help ease the transition.  Once there, it becomes clear that the lead investigator is suspicious of Phillipe and so Troy starts digging around in the house and on the family's home computer.

Connections:
It's kind of a mystery novel and in some ways reminds me of a couple of my favorite authors: Diane Chamberlain, Jodi Picoult, and Gillian Flynn.  Sara Henry really has me curious about Phillipe and if he was really involved in the kidnapping.  I also wonder what will happen to Paul if his dad is/was involved.

There have been several real life kidnapping cases, where children are abducted and forced to live in a small, secret space for long periods of time.  Most notably, the Ariel Castro victim's in Cleveland, Ohio.  Fortunately for Paul, he was only held in captivity for five months, but you can see through the author's details that it has really impacted him.  For example, he didn't have any access to laundry, so he could rinse out his own clothes in the sink and hang them to dry.  He started doing this at home, even though his father was very wealthy and he had a washer and dryer (and even a family maid to was his clothes for him).  He is having a hard time letting go of some of these survival tactics he developed while in captivity.

I'm glad it is winter break, as I know I will have time to finish this book soon and get started on another one.  Happy holidays!