Books I've read this week - The Manufactured Identity

The Manufactured Identity © 2009 by Heath Sommer

ISBN: 978-1-60696-550-4

Tate Publishing & Enterprises

$16.99

About the book: Months after his mysterious disappearance from a routine fishing trip, no one really expects over-the-hill Texas housewife Lory Latchley to find her missing husband – especially her husband. The Manufactured Identity is clinical psychologists Heath Sommer’s ever-escalating immersion into the world of unlikely friends who each awaken to find their faithful companions missing without warning or reason. Desperate to find meaning in their pain, they are thrust by the auspices of fate into a common thread of mystery and human frailty. In the end, the fate of all may reside in the unstable hands of rookie pastor John Joe, but ultimately Lory and her newfound partners will uncover a truth so unnerving it makes even infidelity look palatable.

The first 18 chapters of this book skip back and forth between different characters and I was beginning to wonder how the author was going to tie them all together. I had my suspicions about the disappearing husbands and it turned out I was right in a way. The story was much more involved that I would have thought. You can definitely tell the author is a psychologist because a lot of his expertise comes out in the book through the discussions of the counseling pastor and his patient. The book really delved into the reasons the man did what he did.

The only thing I didn’t like were the few occasions when the author felt he had to use grandiose or novel words in place of every day ones. In one instance instead of saying her teary eyes, he says ‘moist corneas’. In another, the man takes a drink of his ‘ethyl liquid’ instead of just saying liquor or whiskey. In yet another when Lory suddenly snaps out of her depression he says “she pulled out her sword and cut through the aggregated flaxen of her depression”. And what the heck is a-proprioceptive? Is this a clinical phrase? Guess I should keep a dictionary close so I know exactly what he’s saying.

I did find the story fascinating and the author did a great job tying up all the loose ends. The ending was not what I expected and added yet another twist to the book.

This book was provided to me by the author to read and review.