Jessica Pearce Rotondi has written a suspenseful and intriguing memoir, “What We Inherit” that centers on the life of someone she never met. Combining her investigative skills and vivid writing we are taken into the prison camp her grandfather survived in World War II and the Vietnam war era that downed her uncle’s plane and cast a shadow over her mother’s life. With palpable curiosity and patient compassion, she uncovers layers of the survivors’ (her grandparents, an uncle and her mother) pain of not knowing what happened after the plane was shot down, a searing pain that was covered with silence. It is only after the death of the author’s mother, that she discovers a box containing news clippings and letters documenting the family’s fierce crusade to support the belief that her uncle survived the crash. Through the author’s adroit writing we see and feel the intangibles we often inherit from our relatives. What she inherits is an urgency to frame the truth. Excerpts of letters from her family, correspondence from government officials, disappearing and incomplete reports, along with conflicting newspaper articles provide the pieces of the puzzle. Gathering her courage and information she travels to Laos to find the truth and to bring peace to her family and to the reader. A suspenseful and emotional read that I highly recommend!