Do Not Become Alarmed.

Two cousins, Liv and Nora, and their families embark on a luxurious cruise setting sail from L.A. that will visit Central and South America. On the families' first excursion ashore as their husbands play golf, Liv, Norah, their four children along with another woman and her children, are involved in a minor car accident. Unhurt but with their shore plans disrupted they opt to spend a relaxing afternoon on a secluded beach. As the three women spend time napping and exploring, the unsupervised children disappear and cannot be found.

I'm not sure how to classify Do Not Become Alarmed, it was more of a family drama than the suspense filled thriller I was expecting it to be.
It was quick and undemanding to read and I did get caught up in the story but it didn't really engross me or keep me gripped. Part of the reason for this, was that the characters were very undeveloped (I had some difficulty remembering which children belonged to which parents) which in turn meant that I felt detached from them and was less interested in the outcome of the story than I would have liked to be. In addition I felt that some of the side plots and characters, such as the story of Noemi, seemed somewhat superfluous to the main story and I didn't appreciate that so many of the characters and situations in South America were portrayed in such a cliched/stereotyped manner.

On the whole I would say that this story was very straight forward, there wasn't too much of a plot, certainly there were no real twists and turns to keep the reader on the edge of their seat and the ending was rather predictable. The concept behind Do Not Become Alarmed could have been very good but the characters needed to be more distinct and the plot more interesting and cohesive for the story to be a satisfying one.
I didn't hate this but I wouldn't recommend it and unfortunately I won't be rushing to read more books by Maile Maloy.