Booklist Review

King's debut spotlights one dysfunctional family whose patriarch seeks to heal old wounds. Bill Warrington's wife died of cancer years ago, but he's managed pretty well by himself until recently. Now that he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Bill decides it's time to bring his estranged children together while he still can. Mike, the eldest, believes he saw Bill give his mother an overdose of pain pills before she died, and has distanced himself from his father for years. Nick is still drifting aimlessly since his own wife died three years earlier. He leaves interaction with their father to their sister, Marcy, a bitter divorcée struggling to raise her 14-year-old daughter, April, who can't wait to escape her mother's domination. Bill hatches a plan to kidnap April for a summer road trip (with her at the wheel), and drops clues along the way in hopes the siblings will unite in the effort to find them. Part road odyssey, part coming-of-age tale, King's novel achieves the exact right balance of humor, redemption, and reconciliation.--Donovan, Deborah Copyright 2010 Booklist