When She Returned Cover
WHEN SHE RETURNED
Lucinda Berry
When Kate Bennett vanishes from a Target parking lot, she leaves behind her husband and their young daughter, Abbi, to pick up the pieces. Scott, her childhood sweetheart, never gives up hope that they will find her. Eleven years later, she suddenly reappears at a Montana gas station, clutching an infant to her malnourished body and screaming for help.
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Investigators deduce that she was abducted by and eventually escaped from a religious cult that she profiled in her previous life as a journalist. Apparently, her immersive research was a bit too immersive. Kate tries to reintegrate into a society that has long since moved on, and nothing is as she left it. Scott has remarried, Abbi is a teenager, and even Kate is a shadow of her former self. The Bennetts fight to put the pieces back together, but the mystery of Kate’s disappearance continues to haunt them as bit-by-bit, shocking secrets are revealed.
Lucinda Berry always does a good job setting up the psychological details to leave her readers guessing. One of the biggest questions is how she ended up in the clutches of the cult. [Not-so-] surprisingly, you discover she left willingly, although the leader of this so-called cult and the members them-
selves had been huge advocates during the search for Kate. Bit by bit, Kate’s story begins to unravel as she tells her story to the investigators. She recounts endless horrors that she endured, both mentally and physically. I found myself wondering why the hell she stayed. While I understand the concept of brainwashing, I cannot imagine choosing to be locked in a basement for 40 days, defecating into a bucket and getting whipped repeatedly with a belt. To me, that sounds like torture. Why not just leave, right?
As you get deeper into the story, you start to see just how strong Kate’s ties are to the cult and its leader, and you start to question the true reason for her return. Seemingly little lies, misdirections, and small omissions of the truth have you wondering who you can trust, and just who’s side you should be on. Is Kate a victim in the truest sense of the word, or has she been fully indoctrinated into the cult mentality?
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I definitely recommend this book. It shines a spotlight on the troubling effects of Stockholm Syndrome and will leave you wondering, “What would I do if I were in that situation?”