Publication date:
April 13, 2021
NetGalley
Ballantine Books
384 pages
ISBN: 9780593237892
Fiction, mystery, digital
I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This review is my voluntary and unbiased opinion.
Trigger warning as this story discusses themes of sexual abuse, kidnapping and similar to the 1993 kidnapping and murder of Polly Klaas. The author also draws on her own personal experience which she describes in her memoir, "Like Family" (2013).
The story begins with Detective Anna Louise Hart whose devastated that her daughter died. The story alternates Anna's recollection of her difficult past to present day September 21, 1993 when her husband, Brandon asks her to move out. She is spiraling after the tragic death of her daughter. Both her commanding officer Frank Leary and husband beg her to take time to grieve but she's shut herself off from everyone. She had become obsessed with Project Searchlight, which is an initiative focusing on solving sex crimes against children, those abducted and murdered.
Social worker Mrs. Linda Stephens had left Anna at the foster home of Hap and Eden Strater when she lived in Mendocino, CA. She was amazed by the large Victorian home compared to her last foster home in a sad box house near the army base in Fort Bragg. She lived with them for 8 years and learned a lot about survival in the woods from Hal.
After Brandon wouldn't let her return home she found herself driving to the only other place she considered home which was Mendocino. When she stops to eat at the town café she notices a missing person flier for Cameron Curtis. She is immediately submerged in past memories and loss. She rents a "bare bones" cottage just outside of town in a wooded area where she settles in before heading to town for supplies. There appears some chaos as a group led by law enforcement are setting up a search attempt for Cameron Curtis. There she is surprised by Will Flood, an officer now, whom she had known years ago when she was living with Hal and Eden. She doesn’t feel as if she can move forward to confront the unresolved issues from her past until she helps Will solve the case of Cameron Curtis.
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