April 2022

I am going on the record here: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS is Lisa Scottoline’s best thriller! It is fast-paced with so many twists and turns, and I felt like something important to furthering the plot happened on every page.

The Bennetts are a happy family on their way home from their daughter’s lacrosse game, merrily talking about it. A pickup truck is tailing them way too closely. They slow down, but it keeps coming, and then it flies around them and stops. Two men leap from the vehicle, and it feels like a carjacking. There’s gunfire, and by the time it’s done, one of the Bennetts is dead and so is one of the gunmen. What just happened? This is only page nine. When the grieving Bennetts get home that night, there is a knock on the door. Two FBI agents tell them that they need to be moved into protective custody. This is page 29, and the action keeps up like that right until the end. Whew!

I learned a lot about what happens when people are taken into protective custody. They literally just disappear not only from their homes, but also from their businesses and social media. For the Bennetts, their past is erased at a time when they are mourning the loss of a member of their family, alone with their federal watchers. To share more would be to spoil the plot, but know it’s one brisk read, packed with emotion and lots of action.

Lisa got the original idea for the book when she was being tailgated one day as she was comfortably driving the speed limit. The plot was simmering as the driver stayed close behind her. Hmmmmm…I wonder who we have to thank for this book!

This will give you something to think about the next time you are being tailgated. It happened to me last week, and I wanted to yell, “You need to back off and read WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS!”