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Another thrilling suspense novel by Caroline Cooney, They Never Came Back is the story of two girls: Murielle, whose parents fled to escape the consequences of some unscrupulous financial deals five years ago; and Cathy, a typical high school student studying Latin in an accelerated summer course. Their stories are told in alternating chapters beginning in summer school, when Murielle’s cousin meets Cathy and is stunned by her resemblance to his long-lost cousin.
Murielle’s chapters begin when she is ten and her aunt refuses to take her to the airport to meet her parents as they leave the country. Murielle is subsequently lost to her family in the foster care system over the next five years.
Cathy’s story focuses only on the most recent week or so, as gradually the reader realizes that Cathy is Murielle. When the FBI sees Cathy as an opportunity to finally trap her parents, she must make some difficult decisions about right versus wrong, loyalty to family and the people who care for her, and facing up to who she really is and the severity of her parents’ crimes.
Always keeping up with the latest trends in the lives of teens, Cooney has a gift for building tension and keeping readers’ interests right from the start. Communication via the most current technology - text messages, web 2.0 tools, the Internet, etc. - is an integral part of the story as information research becomes central not only to the true identity of Cathy but also to the whereabouts of her parents.
Not predictable, the clever ending does not wrap up Cathy/Murielle’s story neatly but rather points out the complexities of deciding between right and wrong, and the fact that most decisions are somewhere in between. They Never Came Back would make an excellent choice for a teen book club, with many points in the story that warrant discussion and allow for varying points of view. Highly recommended.
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They Never Came Back