There's No Place Like Here

October 29, 2007
Ahern tells the fantastical story of Sandy Shortt, a smalltown Irish girl who, at 10 years old, becomes obsessed with finding lost things after a neighborhood girl disappears. Sandy’s parents fret for years about her fixation, eventually finding her help in the form of hunky high school psychologist Gregory Burton. He’s not much older than Sandy, and soon enough they’re both smitten, though neither moves to pursue a romantic relationship until later, after Sandy graduates and moves to Dublin, where she tracks missing persons for a living. Gregory follows and they start and stall through an awkward courtship that’s cut short when Sandy, while on a jog, gets lost and winds up in a strange parallel universe, home to the people and things that have gone missing from the regular world. What happens to Sandy there, and to those she left behind, will determine not only her future but Gregory’s as well. Ahern jumps around in time and space, which adds as much confusion as suspense, but the underlying message about cherishing what you have comes through loudly by the end. That a film adaptation of Ahern’s P.S., I Love You
is scheduled for release in late December can’t hurt sales potential.

December 15, 2007
Ahern's ("If You Could See Me Now") latest novel veers away from traditional chick lit, blending mystery and fantasy. Sandy Shortt, a six-foot, obsessive-compulsive detective and proprietress of a missing-persons agency, has spent her entire life looking for things and peoplefrom that sock lost in the dryer to her childhood rival, Jenny-May Butler. When Sandy gets lost in the woods one day, she discovers a mysterious and magical land where she finally finds all her missing socks, passports, Jenny-May, and even herself. Secondary plotlines include Sandy's on-again, off-again love affair with her former therapist and an intertwining mystery involving one of the missing people. Ahern's novel "PS, I Love You" is now a major motion picture starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler, and the television series she cocreated with Donald Todd, "Samantha Who?", recently made its debut on ABC, so there's bound to be interest. With no mention of shoes or fashion and very little about Sandy's romantic relationship, this book may disappoint readers expecting typical chick-lit fare, but Ahern fans will find it a fascinating and pleasant read. Recommended for popular fiction collections.Anika Fajardo, Coll. of St. Catherine Lib., St. Paul, MN

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2007
Aherns inventive fourth novel lays open the life of Sandy Shortt, who has been obsessed with missing things and people since her childhood, when her nemesis, the blond and perfect Jenny-May Butler, disappeared. At 34, Sandy tracks missing people for a living. When shes hired by Jack Ruttle to find his younger brother, who disappeared after a night out with his friends, Sandy travels to Limerick to meet her new client. The two cross paths at a gas station, but before their arranged meeting, Sandy goes on a jog and finds herself far, far off the beaten path in a land filled with people and things who went missing from all over the world. Unable to find their way home, the missing have formed their own community, which they show to the thunderstruck Sandy. And Sandy, who has always remained remote from those she should be closest to, discovers that finding the missing people and things shes spent her life looking for doesnt make up for all the things shes been missing out on in her own life. A positively magical novel, Aherns latest sparkles with wit, compelling characters, and a truly clever premise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)