by Kelly Burton

Created on: March 26, 2009   Last Updated: March 28, 2009

Mackenzie Phillips and his family are struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of their young daughter Missy. Years later, and presumed dead, Mack is still haunted by her disappearance and a lot of his blame lands at the door of himself and God for letting it happen.

A strange note appears in his letterbox one day which asks him to return to the shack in which Missy's blood soaked dress is found and it is signed by the affectionate name his wife has for God - Papa.

Is someone playing a nasty trick on Mack? Is the note really from God? This is the story of what happens when Mack arrives at the shack - who is there to greet him and what he learns about himself and what has happened to his daughter.

An intriguing summary huh? This is what my dad thought when he bought this book. He bought a couple of books, so I picked this up whilst he started another. As usual, there are several quotes on the cover of the book stating how wonderful it is and that is always enough to persuade me. I didn't know anything about the author, about the story and I hadn't read any reviews so I went into this story with a completely open mind - and open heart. I was drawn to read it due to my own circumstances with losing my Nan - religion, death and heaven have been at the forefront of my mind so this seemed like a book worth reading.

The story of Mack's circumstances is told by his friend Willie, who mentions at the beginning that this is a story he doesn't know if he believes himself. Mack loses his daughter, and as a result, becomes a sad man lost in his own grief and guilt. When he returns from his weekend at the shack, he is a changed man so Willie finds it hard to conclude that this episode in his friends life is anything awful.

Mack's family tragedy and the note is an intriguing one, and for the first few chapters which lead up to the disappearance of Missy, the arrival of the note and the arrival at the shack were gripping and I was fully absorbed in Mack's story.

I won't reveal what happened when Mack arrived at the shack but some might know by now that this book has some serious religious overtones (a bit of an understatement!) so it might be obvious who is there to greet him. At first this story was just as interesting; it brought up some interesting theories about religions, which I found myself open to and the characters were easy to warm to. Added to this, the book is easy to read - at least at the beginning - and the story flows quickly.

However, this soon changed

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