I was doing some sewing research on patterns when I came across a blog. The person behind the blog was a sewist and knitter, but also, I discovered, had just released a new book. I usually stay away from suspense novels because they tend not to be great for bedtime reading, which is when much of my pleasure reading happens. They are hard to put down and they mess with your head.

But a maker who writes books? And blogs about knitting, sewing, and writing? I was intrigued. I could tell from the blog that the author was doing some of the same hard, good work I’m doing as I enter the mid part of my life. So I requested R.H. Herron’s Stolen Things from the library.

It came in right before a work weekend. I told myself I would wait till after the weekend to start the book. I’ve been in my bed before a shift, needing to sleep before work, but instead glued to a book I couldn’t put down. It happened with the Harry Potter books and The Hunger Games series, both of which were introduced to me by a fellow nurse.

Thursday night, the night before my shift, and I eyed the book. My alternatives were three nonfiction works and I just wasn’t in the mood for any of them.

I started reading and blazed through it in bursts around working and sleeping off my shift. By Saturday afternoon, it was over.

By their nature, suspense novels tend to use disturbing plot lines to drive the story, unpealing layers and details to keep the reader hooked. This book was no different. The story opens in a 911 call center, and as a former 911 call operator, the author was uniquely qualified to write about the subject.

I shouldn’t have been surprised at the end when a note said that the story had been loosely based on actual events.

Yes, the content was disturbing, but blessedly, there were breaks during the story when it was possible to pull away, sometimes even at the end of a chapter. It was like the author knew the reader would need to be able to take breaks without feeling like they had to peel themselves off of the book.

Beyond the content was a story about friendship, family, parenting teens, thoughts on midlife, and the remembrance that every side of an issue has human beings behind it with biases, needs, and dreams.