The deep end of the ocean

"Look after your brother," Beth Cappadora tells her seven-year-old son, Vincent. He checks in at a high school reunion in Chicago. Even with the hotel clerk who, in Beth's estimation, is slower than losing weight, it's not more than five minutes before she turns around again and asks, "Where's Ben?" It's the moment every mother dreads. Three-year-old Ben is gone. And no one can find it. Despite a police search that would turn into a national obsession, Ben disappeared, seemingly without a trace. His disappearance will leave Beth frozen on the brink of repressed agony for nine years and drive a shattering wedge through her marriage to Pat - who, though a man of perfect kindness, can do nothing to bring her boy back. He will turn their second son, Vincent, into a delinquent who judges danger in an attempt to break the jar of silence that surrounds the entire Cappadora family. Then, just after the Cappadoras return to Chicago to help start the family restaurant, something so unexpected happens, changing everything that once seemed true or possible. And maybe, just maybe, it will give Beth what she thought was gone forever: a reason to live.