Anne Hawn Smith's Reviews > The Echo

I found this to be interesting, but rather convoluted. A homeless man was found in a rich woman's house, dead from starvation while lying beside a full freezer. The woman seems to have no connection to the man, but a series of connections appear as the plot winds on. Some of the characters are engaging and well drawn, but others never quite develop and the reader has to keep flipping back to the front of the book to identify them. There are elements in the plot which are really good, especially when the homeless boy comes to live with the reporter, but others, like Barry, never come to any full conclusion.

The main premise of the books is suffering and repentance, but it is presented in a vague and convoluted way. The evil deed in Billy's life is hard to bring into focus and, like others, I can't figure out who the woman in South Africa was. She is like a character from a play who keeps wandering in and out of the set of an unrelated performance.