Let me begin this post with a question..Have you ever had to make a split second decision and then questioned yourself if it was the right one? Yes, ok, I think we all have. We wonder what would have happened had we made a different decision. What would be the outcome if only…Ah, the biggest little word in the American language..if.  What if it was a question of life or death and what if that life or death was your only child? This is the decision faced by our protagonist, Sadie  O’Connell, in Cheryl Kaye Tardif’s book, “Children of the Fog.”

Sadie O’Connell has her share of problems. She is a alcoholic who is trying hard to recover from her addiction and she has an adulterous husband to deal with on top of it. The only thing that keeps holding her together is her pride and joy, her six year old son, Sam and her best friend, Leah. Then one night, the unthinkable happened. Sam was kidnapped by a serial abductor and Sadie saw it happen. She is the only one that can identify this monster, known only as The Fog. He warned her that if she breathed a word about him, he would send her son back to her in “little bloody pieces.”

What follows is whirlwind of emotions and events that would cause a preacher to drink. So, Sadie relapses and pushes everyone away. She flees her home and rents a cabin on the lake. There she experiences some very spooky sights and she questions her very sanity. Are the visions of children that she sees apparitions of The Fog’s victims or are they alcohol induced spirits from her guilt riddled subconscious?  She wonders if she will ever see Sam again, or if her sanity will abandon her first!

This is a spooky book that will keep you on the seat of your pants the entire way through. Sadie is a believable character, because she isn’t perfect, she isn’t a cardboard cutout. Sadie is you, she is me..she is someone we can relate to. We feel her pain and we are scared when she is scared and sad when she is sad. I was hoping for the scary part a bit sooner, to be honest, but it didn’t detract from the story at all. The author is very adept at building the suspense and bringing it to a climax. I highly recommend this book for a fast exciting read that is sure to satisfy your spooky fix as well as your protective side. If you have small children at home, you will be checking on them to make sure they are safe and sleeping peacefully..