Mark Haines used to be a Christian pastor. But then life kicked him in the ass, as it is apt to do, and he lost his faith. Now he is working as a night watchman and trying to stay clean and sober. Unfortunately his carefully constructed new life falls to pieces when a fellow night watchman is murdered and Mark loses his job.
Meanwhile, Mark has befriended a young, vagrant woman, Cindy Liu. He invites her to stay at his place but comes home to find she has vanished. He then pursues a quest to track her down, unable to accept that she has moved on.
He ferrets out she might be staying at the home of a drug dealer who used to attend Mark's former church. He finds her there and she seems to be under the influence. But the drug dealer quickly sends Mark packing and shortly after Mark leaves the man's house, the police raid it and sweep up Mark in the raid too. But in those few minutes between the time Mark caught a glimpse of Cindy and when the police arrive, Cindy has vanished once again.
Mark, still obsessed with the girl, tracks down her former church and talks to the pastor. He soon discovers that events that transpired at the church were the trigger that sent Cindy on her downward spiral into drugs, prostitution and homelessness.
This was an OK read. The main character, Mark, seemed to me to be a very unpleasant and out-of-control person. He strange attachment to Cindy is tied into his guilt over the death of his sister and his estrangement from his daughter. Cindy certainly doesn't give him any encouragement and pretty much refuses to be rescued. But he still won't let it go, even to beating up a man at one point.
He is a weird person and as a character, not very sympathetic.
Review by Publishers Weekly.
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