Noah’s Rainy Day by Sandra Brannan

When five year-old Maximillian Bennett Williams III is kidnapped from the airport, the FBI knows it’s a race against the clock to get him home safely. Adding to the pressure is the titillating detail that the child is the son of a wealthy businessman and a famous super model, making it a high profile case in a hungry twenty four hour news cycle. Because of his past personal relationship with new FBI agent Liv Bergen, the father, Max Jr., uses his considerable clout to put her on the case despite her inexperience. Coincidentally, it is her personal connections that provide the important links to solve the case. Chief amongst those connections is her twelve year-old nephew Noah.

Although Noah’s cerebral palsy affects his ability to speak, walk and control his muscle movements, it has not affected his brain development. Noah is able to communicate to those who pay close attention. He, like his Auntie Liv, loves solving mysteries and with his keen analytical and observation skills, he is able to help little Max even as he puts himself in danger.

Noah’s Rainy Day is the fourth installment in the Liv Bergen mystery series by author Sandra Brannan. While readers unfamiliar with the series may feel like they’re missing something with references that connect to storylines in previous books, overall it doesn’t work against the current storyline. Neither does the predictability of the book, even though it’s categorized as a mystery. Fortunately, predictability is not necessarily a negative with this uncomplicated storyline, as the focus really is on the journey of the characters.

However, there are a few notable distractions in the book that readers should be aware of such as redundancy within the storytelling. It is repeatedly explained why Liv’s tracking dog lost little Max’s scent and there is general repetition with much more extraneous information. Another concern is the frequent switching of the storyteller’s point of view (POV), which may feel erratic to some readers. There are multiple first person POVs, multiple character POVs and a third person narrator. The character development is also a little problematic. For example, the inner “voice” of innocent five year-old Max and twelve year- old sleuth Noah sound basically the same.

In general, once the reader gets familiar with the writing style of the author, the actual story does become an easier read. A very notable plus for this book is the prominent role of Noah, who is so likeable that developing his character for his own mystery solving juvenile series may be a worthwhile idea.

***A free copy of this title was provided for review purposes only***