Disclaimer: I did receive an ARC of this novel (as part of HarperCollins Canada's newly relaunched HCC First Look program) in exchange for a review, but that has not altered my opinion at all.
Synopsis:
At the end of a long winter in well-to-do Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town's prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.
When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridgedale Reader, it's a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale's darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults going back twenty years. Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who's suddenly having disturbing outbursts.
Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight's taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby's death, revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. That the very worst crimes are committed against those we love. And that—sooner or later—the past catches up to all of us.
My thoughts:
I've said it before, but I love thrillers, especially those that are a little psychological and play with your mind. If you've read Kimberly McCreight's massively popular Reconstructing Amelia than you're familiar with how fantastic McCreight's writing is. She is able to weave a fascinatingly creepy story about a small, wealthy town and the secrets surrounding it. This book had me up beyond my bedtime.
Where They Found Her kept me guessing. I hate 'thriller's that are easy to figure out. That was not a problem with this book at all. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has some sort of motive. While this book was creepy, it was also sad. Molly is still struggling with the loss of her own infant daughter, Sandy can't find her mother and assumes the worst, and Barbara is trying to cope with her son who everyone thinks is becoming crazy. I liked this aspect of the book, though, because it's far from that notion of the idyllic college town. It's real life, and real life is scary.
The pacing was excellent. It gripped me right away and kept me interested the whole time, without any major lack. The characters were creepy because they were both relatable and different. You can probably find yourself in one of the characters, and that always makes a thriller seem more real and scary. Like I said, real life is scary.
I rated this a 4 out of 5 because I did have a very slight issue with the ending. I won't say what it is because it's a spoiler, but I just felt like the resolution to one issue was inconsistent with the characters previous actions, and it made me sad for that character.
Where They Found Her is on sale today, and is definitely the perfect book to curl up on the couch with during a rainy April.
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