To the Class of 1972, they were known as the Beacon Hill Gang: a group of high schoolers who gained popularity through their inability to blend with the crowd. Willa was the blond beauty. Angel was the fiery redhead. The others included Patrick, Caleb, Jeremiah, Vinny, Shake and Nancy.
At graduation, they made a pact to meet again in twenty years. The group that seemed so inseparable as teens soon drifted apart.
Fast-forward two decades to the first chapter of Hindsight. It's January of 1992 and Willa is now a best-selling author. She runs into her old friend Patrick at a book-signing event. The pair reflects on the gang's old pact and decide to plan a reunion with the Beacon Hill Gang.
One by one, the old group is located. Readers become familiar with the characters as author Barbara Rogan paints twenty-year portraits of their adult lives. Most of the attention is focused on the still beautiful Willa, who was simultaneously widowed and publicly humiliated by her husband.
Try as she may, Willa can't track down her old friend, Angel. In fact, she hasn't been seen since the Summer of 1972. Rumor has it she ran away from her abusive father, but nobody has heard from her since. A hired investigator uncovers strange facts regarding Angel's decades-old disappearance. Willa hopes the Beacon Hill Gang reunion will be successful and her old friends will have some information on where to find Angel.
Hindsight offers a standard high school reunion theme at its beginning. The former members of the Beacon Hill Gang live up to their distinct (and typical) high school personas. As soon as readers are caught up to 1992, Rogan shifts the theme to that of a Mary Higgins Clark-style suspense novel. At times, the tale focuses on Willa's harried life, but toward the end readers will stumble into a bona-fide mystery.
Hindsight has some basic flaws that can be overlooked. However, the bumpy shift from sentimental reunion tale to suspenseful saga is a tough bite to chew. The characters dutifully do everything that's expected of them. The fact that they haven't changed at all in twenty years proves the Beacon Hill Gang lacks the very hindsight described in Barbara Rogan's tale. This is a decent weekend read, though it doesn't stand out from the pack in the suspense department.
