Named one of the five must-read summer mysteries for 2019 by forbes.comNamed one of the top ten summer reads of 2019 by Good Morning AmericaNamed one of the top fifty summer books of 2019 by Book RiotOn a sunny summer morning by the sea in New England, Susan Ford’s cocoon of privilege is threatened when an Iraqi man from her distant past boards a plane in Baghdad to come find her.Mrs. Ford leads … come find her.
Mrs. Ford leads a privileged life. From her Blenheim spaniels to her cottage on the coast of Watch Hill, Rhode Island, she carefully curates her world. Hair in place, house in place, life in place, Susan Ford keeps it under control.
Early one morning in the summer of 2014, the past pays a call to collect. The FBI arrives to question her about a man from Iraq—a Chaldean Christian from Mosul—where ISIS has just seized control. Sammy Fakhouri, they say, is his name and they have taken him into custody, picked up on his way to her house.
Back in the summer of 1979, on the outskirts of a declining Detroit, college coed Susan meets charismatic and reckless Annie. They are an unlikely pair of friends but they each see something in the other—something they’d like to possess. Studious Susan is a moth to the flame that is Annie. Yet, it is dazzling Annie who senses that Susan will be the one who makes it out of Detroit.
Together, the girls navigate the minefields of a down-market disco where they work their summer jobs. It’s a world filled with pretty girls and powerful men, some of whom—like Sammy Fakhouri—happen to be Iraqi Chaldeans.
What happened in that summer of 1979 when Susan and Annie met? Why is Sammy looking for Susan all these years later? And why is Mrs. Ford lying?
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A twisty thriller, this one left me with mixed feelings. While I enjoyed the writing and the plot was fine, the back-and-forth of the time periods gave me a bit of whiplash, and I really didn’t connect or even particularly like any of the characters. Everyone was out for their own means except for Susan who by turns I felt sorry for (I was rooting for some happiness for her) and frustrated with (at times she was too much of a doormat).
The twists did keep me interested and guessing. But I felt there were too many coincidences and the ending too rosy.
Why would the FBI want to talk to her?
Susan is pretty sure she knows why and didn’t want to think about.
We meet Susan Ford whose life was changed when she quit her job in a dress shop to work in a night club, Frankie’s Disco, and met Sammy Fakhouri.
Now it is coming back to haunt her, and she has questions of her own.
Does she know the answers, though? She might need to make sure she does because others have questions as well.
Susan spent the summer of 1979 always worried about working at Frankie’s Disco and who was working there. It actually was a dangerous place to be.
Frankie’s Disco actually changed Susan’s life and not in a good way until she met Jack Ford.
Jack saved her, but he didn’t know she hadn’t finished college or where she worked the summer of 1979.
The year 2014 brings things crashing down as the FBI wants to interview her, Sammy is looking for her, and her stepson finds out things she has lied about to him and his father.
The beginning and middle chapters of the book give us background information on the life of Susan Ford in 1979 and currently in 2014.
There is a twist in the middle that will have your jaw dropping and have you staying up late to finish the book.
Ms. Royce’s novel had a unique way in terms of a time line.
ENJOY if you read FINDING MRS. FORD – I am quite sure you will. 5/5
This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.