The Search for Jessica

Book excerpt: A detective who is grieving his wife's death investigates a cold case which involves the disappearance of a beautiful, wealthy, young woman. He goes where the leads and clues take him: the handyman at her family estate, her banker, her druggist, a funeral director, a psychiatrist, a priest, her dressmaker, school acquaintances, a sex crimes expert, a museum curator, a "dirty" ex-detective, the sheriff, a powerful attorney and many others, including a spiritualist who "brings up" Jessica's conversations and actions from just before her disappearance. In the course of his investigation, the detective uncovers secrets about the priest's pedophilia, an incestuous relationship, and an insane man's remembrances of Jessica. The detective also learns about coping successfully with the tragedy of his wifeOs death. Crimes and punishments, lies and truth, rights and wrongs, lives and deaths, strengths and frailties, power and corruption - in short this book serves large measures of the human condition.