Sixth in a series of noir mysteries featuring newspaperreporter Samuel Hamilton, Unfinished confronts the question, how much hurt can be repaired when betrayal,kidnapping, and violence touch a person's life? The story opens with thekidnapping of a young boy?the third such kidnapping within a short period?onlynow it's the son of Emma Sheridan, a French émigré, widow of a Vietnamveteran, and someone to whom Samuel owes a huge emotional debt. This time it'spersonal.
While Samuel engages in his usual relentless job ofpursuing the kidnapper, the narrative illuminates the lives and experiences of anexotic cast of characters, Emma Sheridan, whose life has been a series oflosses, Emma's eccentric but resourceful son Alain, the wise and compassionateArgentinean therapist Ana Cejas, and then there are the suspects andperpetrators, driven by their own perverse needs.
Part 1 1 Looking for Clues 10 2 Who Would Steal a Child? 15 3 Samuel's Painful Revisit to his Past 21 4 The Getaway 34 5 Ana Cejas 37 6 We Need a Profile 41 7 Alain Comes Back to Life 49 8 A Shot in the Dark 52 9 Who's the Father? 70 10 What Did Maurice Do with the Boy? 78 11 Melba Figures Out a Way to Help 87 12 Will They Find a Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow or a Dead Body? 95 Part 2 13 Digging Deeper 106 14 The Victims 118 15 The Sordid Reality 135 16 A Delicate Inquiry 145 17 No Low-Hanging Fruit 154 18 Oh, No! 167 19 Emma's Talk with Ana 171 20 Running out of Possibilities 181