A disappearance buried beneath five years of unanswered questions drives A Driftwood Doll, a suspenseful mystery by Richard Enns. Yet the novel also looks closely at struggles unfolding inside the Tough family, particularly Becky’s effort to protect her recovery while pregnancy, PTSD, and cigarette cravings test her resolve.
A Missing Girl and a Name From the Past
At the center of A Driftwood Doll is retired detective Michael Tough, whose background includes service with the Ocean View Police Department in California. He is asked to investigate the disappearance of Stephanie Alexander, who vanished at fifteen after a bitter fight, leaving her wealthy New York family without answers.
Five years have passed, leaving investigators with few useful answers. Then the case suddenly becomes personal.
A photograph reaches Michael’s family, and Stacy, his adopted daughter, recognizes Stephanie under another identity: Janey Young. Her recognition gives the investigation a new direction and raises difficult questions about what happened after Stephanie disappeared.
Michael and his team begin following a trail involving hidden identities, exploitation, family secrets, and people with strong reasons for keeping the past concealed. Every discovery carries consequences. The deeper Michael goes, the clearer it becomes that uncovering Stephanie’s story may place others in danger.
As part of an ongoing series featuring Michael and his wife Becky, the novel also picks up a secondary storyline from the previous book and carries it forward into the next, while continuing emotional threads established earlier.
Becky’s Private Battle and the Family Around Her
Becky, meanwhile, faces a quieter struggle that carries enormous personal weight.
Pregnant and dealing with PTSD, she enters the final months before delivery fighting cigarette cravings. Michael’s brush with Janet Miller’s shooting sets off Becky’s trauma, intensifying an already difficult period. Her previous lapses weigh heavily on her, especially because she guides a women’s group for those leaving prostitution and substance abuse behind.
Becky admits those lapses openly. She keeps cigarettes in her purse as a form of accountability, showing them to the group each Tuesday night. The situation becomes especially uncomfortable when two-and-a-half-year-old Jenny discovers them.
Jenny’s innocent questions push Becky to explain addiction in language a young child can understand. She describes smoking as a bad habit that grown-ups sometimes get stuck with and compares cravings to wanting candy despite knowing it is not so good for you. The conversation brings an unusually intimate perspective to recovery. Becky has to explain something complicated while confronting her own embarrassment at the same time.
She largely white-knuckles the final three months of pregnancy, then smokes one cigarette a week before delivery. No other cigarette follows it.
That detail gives the storyline lasting significance. Recovery here involves accountability, discomfort, honesty, and continuing after a lapse. Becky’s relationship with her OB/GYN, Dr. Michelle Lin, also develops during this period. Their connection grows into a friendship that continues throughout the series.
A Driftwood Doll gains much of its personality from the Tough household itself. Michael may be an experienced investigator, yet his family life continually shapes how he sees the cases around him.
Stacy brings her own painful history into the search for Stephanie. Becky understands trauma and exploitation from personal experience. Jenny, meanwhile, brings an entirely different kind of honesty. Her questions are simple because she is a toddler, yet they reach subjects adults often struggle to discuss openly.
Richard uses these relationships to place human consequences alongside the investigative tension. Stephanie’s disappearance carries real human stakes, involving vulnerability, identity, exploitation, and the possibility that important truths were ignored for years.
The result is a mystery where uncovering facts matters deeply because of the people attached to them. A Driftwood Doll was published on October 9, 2026, and is available in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover editions.
About the Author
Richard Enns is a retired probation officer who served with the San Diego County Probation Department for nearly 22 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in History from North Park College in Chicago and a Master of Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary. He lives in San Diego with his wife and two children.
Where the Story Leaves Its Mark
A Driftwood Doll brings together a long-buried disappearance, an increasingly dangerous investigation, and a family carrying its own emotional history. Stephanie’s case supplies the suspense, while Becky’s pregnancy and recovery journey add a personal thread with consequences that continue beyond this book.
Through Michael’s determination, Stacy’s unexpected connection to the missing girl, Jenny’s candid questions, and Becky’s final struggle with smoking, Richard creates a story concerned with truth in several forms. Sometimes truth solves a mystery. Sometimes it asks someone to admit a painful lapse and keep moving forward.