As a wife, mother, and medical student in the final phase of her program, Claire Rawlings has been running on nothing but fumes.  When the stress catches up with her, making her violently ill, it comes at the exact wrong moment.  Speeding through Chicago to get her girls to daycare on time, she makes an emergency stop at a gas station's outside restroom.  Desperately sick, Claire leaves her sleeping children in the car right outside the bathroom, rushes inside, and vomits until she passes out on the filthy floor.  When she wakes, her car has vanished—along with her two daughters.

Plagued by guilt, Claire can think of nothing but her missing children, 15-month-old Lily, and 4-year-old Andrea.  As the months and years drag on with few leads, despair replaces hope, crumbling the Rawlings' marriage and the happiness that once characterized their family life.  When Claire meets Jay White, a recovering alcoholic who claims to have inherited a gift for otherworldly "Feelings" from his Sioux grandmother, she dares to believe she may finally be able to find out what happened to her girls. 

Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly is a riveting, one-sitting read that kept me completely transfixed.  The characters are interesting, the plot tense, and the prose compelling.  Although this one gets an R-rating for language and violence, it's not nearly as graphic as most thrillers.  Overall, I really enjoyed this debut.  I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for what Connolly does next.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer and You Are My Only by Beth Kephart) 

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