Peter Ryan wakes up on a typical morning only to find his house empty, his wife and daughter nowhere to be found. His world is shattered after a phone call to a friend confirms the impossible: his wife and daughter died in a car accident he does not remember. Haunted by faint memories and flashes of details, Peter becomes convinced that something isn’t right and begins to question reality. When he discovers a note in his daughter’s handwriting, strange memories begin to surface that cause him to second-guess nearly everything he once believed. Suddenly armed men show up at Peter’s home, turning the mysterious puzzle of his past into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. On the run and unsure whom to trust, Peter has to discover what’s real and what isn’t . . . before he loses everything.

“You can’t trust your memories. Don’t trust them. Whatever you think is true may or may not be. Your reality has been so tampered with that you can’t know for sure that anything is real,” Peter is told in Mike Dellosso’s novel, Centralia. Part of the Jed Patrick series, this four-hundred-page paperback targets those who enjoy fiction filled with action, suspense, and mystery. With no profanity or sexual scenes, topics of physical abuse, torture, and death may not be appropriate for immature readers. This reader wishes all pronouns of God were capitalized for reverence. The ending includes an advertisement for the next book in the series, acknowledgments, nine discussion questions, the author’s biography, and ten discussion questions. In this current day story based on the East Coast, psychobiology research assistant Peter Ryan wakes up at home one morning to find his wife and eight-year-old daughter missing. Reminded again the two had died in a car accident months ago, the man wonders why his memories do not line up with reality. Having a recurring dream about a house with several rooms, the one locked door at the end of the hall is the key to finding out what has happened and why he cannot remember. When he reads a note written by his daughter, he seeks to find her and his wife’s whereabouts, believing he has not been told the truth. As he races to the deserted ghost town of Centralia, Ryan is chased down by a covert government agency that runs a secret military project involving memory manipulation. Analytical and calculating, Ryan not only has to deal with his past professional skills as a trained killer, but he also feels God’s hand of protection, especially when it involves his daughter and her unfailing faith. Trying repeatedly to determine what is the truth versus lies, the multi-dimensional character recognizes that appearances can be deceiving, and things are not what they seem. Fast-paced whenever Ryan encounters a new situation, he must combine his dreams, memories, and what he has been told to understand who he was and what he has become. The tale of one’s hidden past ends with a plausible beginning of a sequel. Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars Adjunct professor of creative writing and conference teacher, Dellosso has authored eight suspense novels. Having a masters degree in theology, he as well as his wife serve in their local Pennsylvania church. Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. for furnishing this complimentary book in exchange for a review based on the reader’s opinions.