Review: Out of Mind

Out of Mind Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Catherine Sampson
Class/Genre: Mystery Woman Main Character Amateur Sleuth
Series: Robin Ballantyne # 2
ARC; Mysterious Press; 2005; 306 pps

Robin Ballantyne is a journalist for the Corporation working on a documentary on missing persons. She begins investigating the disappearance of Melanie Jacobs, who was a camerawoman for the corporation that disappeared several months previously while attending the war school, HazPrep. It is a school to teach journalists how to protect themselves and behave in hazardous environments while reporting in war zones and other dangerous situations.

Robin hones in on a soldier named Mike Darling, who was the last person that saw Melanie alive at HazPrep, as her prime suspect in Melanie’s disappearance. She becomes suspicious of him when she learns that he knew Melanie previously in Afghanistan but did not inform the police of his previous acquaintance with her when questioned in her disappearance. While investigating Mike Darling, she becomes involved with both his family and his best friend and fellow soldier’s family.

Melanie’s boyfriend at the time of her disappearance is also a fairly suspicious character, who teaches psychology and claims to believe that she has just disappeared and is in hiding because she is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. However his alibi and actions around the time of her disappearance do not hold up to well to inspection either.

Robin has quite a busy life as she is a widow, trying to juggle a career, three year old twins and a relationship with a policeman that she is afraid to trust or make a commitment with to somewhat stabilize their relationship. Her investigation into Melanie’s disappearance causes her nothing but problems with her superiors at work, who are afraid of a scandal, her boyfriend, her children’s nanny and the two military families.

This was not a really fast paced book but well worth the read. I will look for previous installments in the life of Robin Ballantyne as the book refers to her husband being murdered so I believe there is probably a previous book out there and would like to read more about Robin as I found her a very interesting character.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Gina Metz - RAM

Book Review: Out of Mind