When I read an author who is new to me, I'm taking a chance that either I will like her writing or I am wasting my time. Emiko Jean, though, fell somewhere in the middle with THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK.



The reason I never read this author before is that she wrote young adult novels, which I mostly don't care for. But THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK is, she says, her first novel written for adults. If throwing in a couple F words and lame sex scenes (e.g., where they "grind their hips" in the back seat of a car) makes a YA novel "adult," then that's true. Obviously, it isn't an adult novel by my standards.



I read this because the story I had heard about attracted me. A 19-year-old girl, Ellie, is found after she disappeared two years ago, when she was 17. She had been kidnapped. The story contains chapters written from Ellie's point of view while she was being held prisoner and other chapters written in the present, mostly from the point of view of Chelsey, the police detective who has been in charge of Ellie's kidnapping case. Soon the surprises begin, even if an adult reader might predict the surprises.



Just a couple of days after Ellie's return, Chelsey notices that Ellie seems to be hiding something. And, little by little (hopefully), between the chapters from the past and those from the present, the reader will figure it out . Or some readers may figure it out sooner.



But it is a good story, even if Jean does make some silly comments and even though she tries too hard to concentrate on women's issues.