The Kindness of Strangers

"The Kindness of Strangers" by Katrina Kittle was an enthralling read. The subject matter was tough, but very well written. It is the story of a widowed mother, Sarah, with two sons,Danny and Nate, who runs a catering business and enjoys taking her sons to sports activities, and visiting with her closest friend. Her friend, Courtney, helped her through the mourning period for her beloved husband, has a son, Jordan,the same age as her youngest. With so much in common, the children spend a lot of time together, until one of them says very mean things to the other. As she leaves for a catering job one morning, Sarah sees her friend Courtney's son standing in the rain and offers him a ride to school. Noticing he looks ill, she stops at a rest stop, letting him go to the filthy port o potty. Finding him unconscious after waiting for him for quite a while, she carries him to the hospital and all hell breaks loose. Thinking she has done something good, she is shocked to see her friend being led out of her house in handcuffs, starting a very well written story on a very hard subject. The chapters are told from the Sarah's point of view as well as the boys views.The story becomes front page news, and everyone wants the gory details from Sarah. People think this type of thing cannot happen in a nice,"good", neighborhood, and the sense of safety is rocked by the news as it comes out. It is a shocking, sometimes disgusting, subject matter that is handled very delicately and straight forward manner. I found myself reading all night, just to make sure everyone in the story was alright. A very good book!