On Borrowed Time

Read On Borrowed Time Storyline:

What if it were possible that your most cherished memories were lies… and that finding out the truth could cost you your life?Richard Kilmer is head over heels in love with Jennifer Ryan, who takes him home to meet her parents, where she accepts his marriage proposal. While visiting, they set out on a nostalgic drive up to Kendrick Falls. On their way there, a freak storm rolls in, Richard loses control of his car, and it rolls. When the storm clears in a matter of seconds, Jen is gone. Richard can’t find her, and neither can the police who respond to the scene. More horrifying is that no one in Richard's life will even confirm Jen’s existence, and all traces of her have disappeared.Where could she be? Has Richard lost his mind, or has something far worse happened?David Rosenfelt’s On Borrowed Time is a stunning new thriller about an ordinary man who is trapped in a nightmare where he can’t be certain of anything—not even his own memories.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. At the start of this excellent stand-alone from Rosenfelt (Down to the Wire), 29-year-old journalist Richard Kilmer is planning to ask the love of his life, Jennifer Ryan, to marry him. But on a drive from Manhattan's Upper West Side, where they share an apartment, to Jen's hometown two hours outside the city, they have an accident and Jen disappears. After Richard discovers to his astonishment that Jen's family, her friends—even his friends—claim never to have known her, he begins a series of magazine articles about his unsettling experience (a nice variation on the frequent but unconvincing hush-hush imperative of many thrillers). Meanwhile, it becomes clear that some nefarious memory experiment involving Richard is underway. The arrival from Wisconsin of Allison Tynes, who says she's Jen's identical twin sister, may strike some as contrived, but all will marvel at the way Rosenfelt builds suspense while keeping the plot line from veering too far into the kooky and hokey. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. From BooklistThis one pulls you in and won’t let you go. Skillful as Rosenfelt is, he can’t take all the credit. He’s working a sure-fire theme, one that’s at least as old as Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes and as new as Jodie Foster’s Flight Plan. The lead’s traveling companion suddenly isn’t there. Frantic inquiries reveal this person never existed. The lead is tagged a crazy and is in danger of arrest. So it is with Rosenfelt’s hero. In a moment, his lover is gone. Even the settings where the romance played out have vanished. Rosenfelt’s fans have always appreciated his turn on the crime novel. His heroes are not troubled, fragile men but cheerful chaps not above enjoying the puzzle they’ve been thrown into. This novel suffers the plot’s curse: there is no way the solution can be as intriguing as the mystery. And along the way to a solution, a couple of significant holes in the story’s infrastructure appear. Never mind. The novel still works a spooky turn on the old chestnut, and readers will enjoy being mystified one more time. --Don Crinklaw