Another good psychological thriller by a new-to-me author. I see she's written many novels but for awhile I'll be taking a break from her. I do highly recommend this one, though!
STORY SUMMARY
Sarah McAdams, now a single mother of two girls (Gracie, age 12 and Jade, age 17) needs to make a fresh start. She is divorced from Noel McAdams who is the father of Gracie and who adopted Jade. Noel chose to move to the east coast to Savannah, Georgia. Sarah and the girls are leaving Vancouver, Washington to live in the mansion that Sarah grew up in. The town is Stewart's Crossing and it's very small. Jade is the result of a pregnancy that complicated Sarah's life in unexpected ways...she was very young and her boyfirend and she had just broken up when she found out she was pregnant. Only she and her mother Arlene know the biological father's identify.
Sarah plans on renovating the old house which locals think is haunted. It's on the shores of Oregon's wild Columbia River and is surrounded by woods. There is a neighbor nearby, owned and lived in by Clint. Clint is Sarah's former boy friend from high school.
The house holds many disturbing memories for Sarah----her very emotionally distant and cold, often abusive mother; her half-sister who disappeared with no trace when Sarah was a very young little girl; and a night when Sarah was found on the widow's walk, feverish and delirious when she was about Gracie's age. She has some memories that are clear and other memories that seem to lurk in the corners of her mind.
Ever since the original mistress of the mansion plunged to her death almost 100 years ago, many rumors abound that the entire property is haunted. When Sarah was a little girl, she often sensed a "presence" and shortly after Sarah and the girls move in, Gracie claims to see a "lady in white" running up the stairs. Sarah, however, has no time to dwell on possible hauntings and bad memories...she has a house to renovate, and needs to deal with the man from her past.
As they begin to settle into their new schools and life, some disturbing news comes to them. Two girls are missing from Stewart's Crossing...two teenagers.
Soon, two more disappear. Sarah begins to fear for her own daughters' safety and she feels herself "cracking". Somewhere, deep in her memory, is the key to a very real and terrifying danger. And then she finds a real key. What door will it open??
When Sarah begins to confront her worst fears, she can begin to stop the nightmares from coming back to life.
MY THOUGHTS
This book deals with a lot of different topics.
The main one is human trafficking/sexual slavery.
The other one is incest. Both topics might be trigger points for some readers.
Underlying themes are the mother-daughter relationship; Dementia; emotional abuse; dishonesty and betrayals; dysfunctional family dynamics; father-daughter relationships; and forgiveness and love.
The book is a bit "dark" with the paranormal activity but it's not super heavy and really just makes the setting more real. It's hard to explain.
I love the character development although this is the 2nd novel I've read of this author's and the characters are very similar to the ones in the previous novel I read so....not sure I like that. If all of her books are like this, I probably won't read more.
The book is fast-paced and definitely will make you want to read far into the night to solve both puzzles that are going on. There's the puzzle of just exactly what happened to Angelique de Luc (the original mistress of the house) and what happened when Sarah was a very little girl.
There's the puzzle of the missing teen girls as well and the role that Sarah's much older half-brother plays in to that.
I guessed the ending as it's quite predictable but it was an ok ending.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content and language).
On a scale of 1-10, I rate this a 9.
(it would rate a 10 but there was too much swearing in it, although with many editing errors for me to make it perfect 10!)
2 comments:
Oh I like her!! I have one now called Tell Me. Oh and You Don’t Want to Know lol two I have from the library from her. This one looks good. I’ll put on my tbr list!!
There are several books by this author on the Little Library shelves at my gym. I'll have to see if this is one of them. I haven't read anything by her before.
Post a Comment