Book Title : Forgotten
Author : Mariah Stewart
Publisher : Balantine Books
Date Published: 2008
Number of pages: 440
Genre : Detective, Thriller
Forgotten is unforgettable. Mariah Stewart had thrilled the reader by the story of Evil who has a killer instinct. The story tells about Agent Portia Cahill who tried to re-investigate the case of serial-murderer closed years ago together with James Cannon who once defense the killer named Sheldon Woods. He is a pedophile who kidnapped and killed an untold number of boys and escaped the death penalty by making the exchange the sentences with the information of whereabouts the victim’s bodies. He played the law and the rules while being investigated by Agent Cahill to get what he wants. At the end of the day Agent Cahill and James Cannon found out unbelievable truth about him and the case itself.
I would say the villain was incredibly stood out along with the main detective, Agent Cahill. Sheldon Woods never fails to make me thrilled by his history of life. He once was sort of a popular kind guy who is missed by a lot of people because of his talent riding horse but he came other way round after he got abused by his own mother. On the investigation, his mind must be totally insane because his answer of how the buried the victims were unpredictable. He explained how sadistic he was as well as taking it as funny jokes having me Goosebumps.
If I had to choose who my favorite character is, I think it would be Portia Cahill. Agent Cahill got my attention because of her actions during the investigation was very stunning. She believed that Woods background is important trying to know what the motive of Sheldon Woods doing that sin was. She tracked down all of his families, relatives, and friends who have the relations with him and visited him on the jail. She invested much of her time only to get the answer how was woods when he was a kid. Small thing like how Woods’s mother called him “my little man” was fishy to her and gave big hints to the case. The way she take care of the details lead her to the answer of the case.
The plot twist of Wood’s case was very interesting and annoying at the same time. When Agent Cahill found two bodies in one grave and found out of it was new, she thought that wood’s control someone else inside the jail. Woods also made her believe what she thought but actually nearby the end of the last chapter, Woods’s had nothing to do with it. It drives me crazy because in fact the one who did that was very close with both Woods and Portia. It was De Luca, the jail keeper who always accompanied wood in the meeting room. On top of that, the motive that he mentioned was he wants to be popular like woods.
Well, even though De Luca was unbelievable, Agent Cahill relationship with Wood’s ex attorney James Cannon was the most annoying one. The romance between them was realistic at first because they worked together and Cannon helps Portia by giving her some information the he could share. I think it makes both Agent Portia and James Cannon unprofessional when they were dating while the case was still going on. Moreover, James said that he couldn’t reveal about his client information but he gave Portia the list contact of Woods’s family. I don’t know if it is allowed but I just think their romance it’s not necessary in the story any way.
Romance part of this story was a bit off too me and should be replaced by the extension of De Luca motive on doing so. If I were the author, I would never make the character out of nowhere stated that he wanted to be popular. It seems like a random stuff coming and had no time to resolve the problem. At least give a reasonable why being popular is important to him or make the story continue for the next book for example. It would be better if De Luca has certain thing to wood or want to take the revenge to the victims. Or maybe De Luca was Wood’s childhood best friend, it would be more interesting than letting him be the one who want to be famous.
I have to say that I never knew such case ever happened to my personal experiences. But, I believe it was a regular case that often happens around the world including Indonesia. I remember one of the Pedophilia that surprised the nationwide was Jakarta International School case. The perpetrator was working as a cleaning service there and the victim was an innocent boy who was still around 6-8 years old. The boy was raped and I am wondering what the motive was when he did that. The case was popular because the victim’s parent has the power to take legal action and brave to make it public. Indonesian people still have a conservative mindset about sexual harassment and think that such cases bring the shame and decided not to take legal action towards it.
We can learn anything even from a wicked nasty villain like Woods. Woods before he became a murderer, he once was an innocent and skillful child too. Unfortunately, he had grown up in a very toxic and dangerous family where his mom sexually abused him. Family comes first, people say. That’s why family environment and education shaping kids character and what they will become in the future. I think sex education for children is also important so they can be aware of it and help themselves from perpetrator in everywhere.
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