Wow. This little gem of a novel sucks you in and holds you hostage – not unlike the characters within the stomach knotting storyline. It’s a page turner – suspenseful, gritty, and real. The characters are exceptionally rendered, layer by layer by layer, and you end up caring about each one in the ever-twisting plot.

The Answer to Your Question is an apt title – the core of the novel, and the raw energy the author taps into over and over again, is the psychology driving the seemingly unanswerable choices and actions we all make. What draws us into relationships – those that are healthy and those that are not? What propels some of us to do the unimaginable? The author provides you with just the level of detail you need to piece together your own understanding of the individual motivations driving the choices each character makes. And like our own choices, as one of the main characters, Jean, points out in the novel: “It’s not bits and pieces you can pick and choose. It’s whole cloth. Everything counts.”

A psychological thriller, check. But what I loved about this novel most was the quality of the writing. It’s beautifully written. I found myself re-reading passages and lines simply because I found the detail, language and dialog so beautiful, often hauntingly so.

Easily the most enjoyable novel I have read in some time. An exceptional work by a talented writer.
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Bold and compelling - this is the heartfelt story of Inga & Jean, and how their lives became intertwined. This novel pulls the reader into the intense scrutiny of two characters' psyche. Each protagonist has a voice that grows stronger, as they each reach out for their own emotional survival. An intriguing tale, told with an original voice. Paulette Alden has done well to reveal the story of the two unfortunate souls who imprinted on each other while on the path of their own journeys. Both are confronted with unimaginable loss. Inga deals with her fate and choses life after mayhem. Jean, a simple woman, learns about the world and copes with the immeasurable heartache. Our humanity is often tested by tragedy. Questions arise... How we answer is the way we each define ourselves. Inga and Jean replied with decency and loyalty in this wonderful story. They asked the hard questions, and faced the answers. I highly recommend this book for all those who appreciate the human struggle and are not afraid to hear a voice seeking an answer to their question. ( )

The Answer to Your Question by Paulette Alden is a first-rate, character-driven psychological thriller. It’s about the character Ben Daudelin, a serial murderer, but it approaches him from the unique points of view of two women very close to him: Inga Daudelin, his mother, and Jean Jones, a young teenager kidnapped and held hostage by Ben. The book takes us deep into the mind of these two main characters and through them, and their interactions with Ben, we get as close as we can to understanding the true nature this psychological phenomenon.

The author is masterful at creating characters. I quickly became attached to the book’s two main characters. They became wholly real; I cared about them…and when either was psychologically or physically in danger, I couldn’t stop reading. Once I was about a third of the way through this book, I was completely lost in the story; time was suspended; I couldn’t stop until the end. I love books that do that and consider it the sign of a really good writer and a good book.

Inga is the serial murderer’s mother. She is in her forties and works as a librarian in Tacoma, Washington. The author admits that she modeled Inga after the famous serial murderer Ted Bundy’s mother who was also a librarian and worked in Tacoma. In the first chapter, we are with Inga when the police come to her home and inform her that her good-natured, affable twenty-five-year-old son, Ben, is wanted as a suspect in the brutal murders of four women. She is completely blindsided and incredulous. Foremost, she is a mother, and throughout the story, her love for her son never falters; but as the book progresses, little by little, her doubts about his innocence grow. The book is an absorbing and intriguing emotional study of that process.

But it is much more than that. It is also an effective and moving psychological thriller…and that’s because of Jean’s participation in the plot.

Jean, is an odd, vulnerable sixteen-year-old woman who works with Inga in the library as a shelving clerk. She was raised deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and seems preternaturally wise beyond her years—a young woman who possesses a primal understanding of the cruel realities of the natural world. She emotionally attaches herself to Inga and eventually gets drawn into Inga’s situation with Ben. Eventually, Ben kidnaps Jean and the two develop an odd relationship. Through Jean’s interactions with Ben, the author makes us aware of the extreme complexities of Ben’s character.

The book asks: How can someone like Ben, who seems so outwardly normal, actually be a serial murderer? The answer is not straightforward, but subtle and authentic. The author makes the reader understand that characters like Ben are enigmas. We can never completely fathom the complexity of their characters and motivations. In the context of this book, that answer seemed eloquent and fitting.

Paulette Alden is a powerful writer, which is something we should expect from anyone who managed to win a prestigious place as a Stegner Fellow at Stanford’s Creative Writing Program. If you enjoy first-rate, character-driven, psychological thrillers, you shouldn’t pass this up. ( )