5 out of 5 stars

SIDETRACKS: Exploring what might have been, November 2, 2009
By April M. Hanson (San Jose, CA USA)

In SIDETRACKS, author Valerie Connelly takes her characters on a journey to explore what might have been. It's a question we have all asked, "What if I had said yes instead of no? What if I'd gone right instead of left?" In this captivating novel Ms. Connelly examines these questions while weaving a suspenseful tale that will keep the reader interested until the very end.

Shortly after being shot and left for dead, Hannah Sebastian and Peyton Staley wake up on a train to discover that they must relive certain aspects of their lives and gain a better understanding of how these events shaped them. They will then have the opportunity to take a different path, or sidetrack, to see what might have been. Neither Hannah nor Peyton want to go on this journey but they are told that they must if they want to have any chance of recovering from their injuries and living out the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, in reality, Hannah and Peyton are in the hospital and near death and it is up to Hannah's attorney and friend, Lynn Hargrove, and Detective James O'Reilly to put the pieces together and figure out who shot them and why.

I really love the idea of this book as I think everyone would jump at the chance to see what would have happened had they taken a different road. What made this book so great was that I didn't expect the sidetracks to go the way they did, especially Hannah's. I also enjoyed the interaction between Hannah and Peyton on the train and Lynn and Detective O'Reilly during the investigation. The characters were well developed, the entire story was well thought out and Ms. Connelly told it in a way that kept me furiously turning the pages until the very end. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good investigative mystery with some serious twists that will have you thinking about the sidetracks in your own life.