Cassie H. (Irishcoda) reviewed on 6/25/2006 + 88 more book reviews

I thought the premise was an interesting one: the father of an adopted child (supposedly from Russia) learns that his baby could not have been born there--and so who is his son in actuality? It turns out the father is a pathologist and happened to get a sample of his son's bone marrow or spinal fragments from a test for leukemia. The doctor noticed the sample was fluorescent and began to wonder why. It turns out that only a specific antibiotic could cause such a thing to happen--an antibiotic not available in Russia. Meanwhile, it turns out the little boy did not have leukemia.

This dad kept wondering and worrying about that sample. I wondered if I would go to the lengths this doctor did--it almost seemed to me like maybe he really didn't want the child after all because after his first attempts to research the child's background instead of giving up and feeling relieved he had a healthy son, he kept going. He began looking for missing children reports and trying to match the boy's physical characteristics with parents who'd had their babies stolen--very noble, don't get me wrong. But believeable? Eh.

If the author stuck with this character, I think I would have enjoyed it more. Instead, she introduces a whole bunch of "cardboard" characters with little or no substance to them. The worst of these stereotypes was the doctor's father-in-law. There was little to no imagination in them and that's too bad.

I'd give the book a 5 out of 10. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a great read.

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