The Abortionist's Daughter

Elisabeth Hyde's book, In the Heart of the Canyon made my top ten of 2009. I loved her characters and the story of a motley crew rafting down a canyon (natch) was intriguing. The Abortionist's Daughter is an earlier novel and it shows. It's still an intriguing story--I read it all in one weekend--but the creakiness of the craft comes through.

It's not a ripped-from-the-headlines Jodi Picoult novel, but Hyde delicately balances the two sides of the polarizing issue of abortion. The anti-abortionist side is represented by a reverend without a church, but he's no crazed monster. The abortion doctor, Diana Duprey is thoughtful about her work, taking her cue from her mother's early advice: ...if you believed in something, you didn't let your own personal circumstances stand in the way: the true test of your convictions came when your emotions rose up and threatened to scribble over everything you stood for. Diana thought, her job, as she saw it, was simply to push the reset button for the woman on the table.

The problem is that Diana Duprey is found dead in the first few pages of the book. Is it a crazed and angry protester, which is what most people believe in this tight-knit community? Is it her husband with whom she'd just had a knock-out, drag-down fight, which is what the police believe? Or is it her furious daughter, grappling with her own sexuality and politics?

Diana Duprey's death, like her very existence, sends ripples into that community and the police spend a lot of time tripping over information. I must admit I didn't have much doubt as to whodunit, but Hyde takes her time getting there, in a decent way. The question becomes not so much who killed the abortion doctor, not even the why, but the clever way Hyde keeps the killer in the periphery. You just want to shake everyone to tell them what's what, but the responsible character is so realistically drawn that you understand the oversight. Plus, there are so many secrets that need to come out that the reader becomes as distracted as the police. I liked the way the reader is given all the missed connections in people's lives, all the clues that are missed, whether by police or by loving parents and a long-term couple.

The title implies we'll care about Megan Duprey but if anyone needed a good shake, it's the 19 year old daughter. I didn't think she was very realistic for her age and circumstances, but she makes a decent catalyst. The police are better drawn and it would have been nice to get more of Diana's voice as we follow the final day in her life, a day that already starts badly and then...ends.