learning to swim

learning to swim
troy chance #1
sara j. henry
fiction/mystery/suspense
crown
published 2011

"If I'd blinked, I would have missed it. But I didn't, and I saw something fall from the rear deck of the opposite ferry: a small, wide-eyed human face, in one tiny frozen moment, as it plummeted toward the water."
When she witnesses a small child tumbling from a ferry into Lake Champlain, Troy Chance dives in without thinking. Harrowing moments later, she bobs to the surface, pulling a terrified little boy with her. As the ferry disappears into the distance, she begins a bone-chilling swim nearly a mile to shore towing a tiny passenger.

Surprisingly, he speaks only French. He'll acknowledge that his name is Paul; otherwise, he's resolutely mute.

Troy assumes that Paul's frantic parents will be in touch with the police or the press. But what follows is a shocking and deafening silence. And Troy, a freelance writer, finds herself as fiercely determined to protect Paul as she is to find out what happened to him.  She'll need skill and courage to survive and protect her charge and herself.  

Troy Chance is a very intriguing character.  I'm not sure that I really liked her, could see myself as friends with her and I definitely can't say that I understood her, but she was very interesting to read about.

The story is really slow, but it is so well written that I didn't mind.  I was wrapped up in Troy's life.  Trying to figure her out, trying to make sense of the strange and sometimes awkward decisions she made.  I could understand her fierce love for the boy she saves and I loved how self aware she is.  Recognizing her faults and when she's gone too far.

The story itself is a bit predictable.  Nonetheless, I was interested enough to continue to go back to it!