James LePore, A World I Never Made

James LePore's debut novel starts well. Upon arriving in Paris in January 2004, to visit his daughter, Pat Nolan discovers that she has killed herself and he's required to identify her body. He makes a positive ID, but the body lying in the morgue isn't hers. She's faked her death for some reason, and Pat sets out to find her and find out why she took such an extreme step. The narrative jumps between Pat's story in the narrative present and Megan's story, which begins about a year earlier. Megan has been living it up in Europe for years on the bankrolls of her wealthy lovers. It's that lifestyle, coupled with her post-9/11 interest in terrorism, that's gotten her into her current predicament.

While the book's two storylines remain separate, the book reads well. But in the last fifty-odd pages the stories coalesce as the various parties searching for Megan close in. I found this concluding section of the book confusing, the various secondary characters blending together, the action a bit hard to follow. In the end, I'm not quite sure how Pat managed to track Megan down. She allegedly left a trail for him to follow, but it wasn't a particularly clear one. There is also a romantic side story which would have worked well except that the relationship's development is improbably fast. In short, the book has a good premise and it reads well for much of the story, but for me, at least, it falls apart in its last quarter.