Family ties, ruptured and renewed

Matt Bishop's pregnant wife, Marissa, surprises her husband one day with an unusual request: Find the antique cradle that my mother, Caroline, took when she abandoned me years ago.

Marissa doesn't want to know where Caroline is living or what she's doing — and she certainly doesn't want to see her mother again. But she's determined to have that cradle for her own child.

Matt resists his wife's request at first, but he soon gives in and hits the road in search of the cradle. He figures it's an easy mission: Find Caroline, track down the cradle and bring it home. A day's journey, at most.

But what begins as a day trip soon turns complicated as Matt follows Caroline's trail, which becomes harder to understand as the journey progresses.

That's the premise of "The Cradle," Patrick Somerville's debut novel. And although it starts off well, the novel soon sinks beneath the weight of boring characters and an unsurprising plot.

Intertwined with Matt's journey is the story of Renee, a poet who is caught up in memories of her long-lost first love. The two stories eventually connect — but an alert reader will have figured out the link long before it's revealed.

Somerville clearly intends his short novel as an exploration of family ties, some ruptured and some renewed. And he might have achieved his goal if he had succeeed in generating some genuine suspense or creating more than one memorable character.

As it stands, Matt is the only character worth caring about. The others all emerge as stick figures whose main purpose is to advance the plot by sending Matt to the next stop on Caroline's trail. Even Darren -- who's the closest thing to a villain in the book and the only one besides Matt who has the potential to come alive on the page -- fails to capture the reader's attention, due largely to the leaden dialogue in his scenes with Matt.

"The Cradle" had the potential to transcend its sentimental movie-of-the-week roots, thanks to some sharp writing and Somerville's light touch. But in the end, his story fails to soar.