Fortune's Last Descent, by Audrey Braun ($14.95)

Audrey Braun takes great care with her descriptions. Most of the book takes place in Zurich and a small village in France. Her scenes are evocatively drawn; food, chatter, and light build a sensory base. We are lost when Celia Hagen is lost. We mourn the missing child when Celia does. We jump to our feet, too, when Celia can no longer stand another authority figure doing nothing. But Celia faces her terror alone.

One would have thought that Celia had lived a lifetime's worth of sorrow in A Small Fortune. But, no. Now her eight-year-old son, Benny, has disappeared from the train in which they were traveling. She slowly comes to believe that the authorities think she had something to do with it. She thinks her companion, Benecio, is deceiving her. Only her 24-year-old son, Oliver, is steadfast in his support. This is the same son that in the first book was so dismissive of her in all his teenage wisdom.

We know from the first book that Celia can do what needs doing. She finds her strength once again, shakes off the people who want to contain her, and stubbornly begins the search for her son.

A dilly of a thriller.