My thoughts
The sequel to These Still Black Waters and it's just as good. In the first book you met Jess Lambert. Got to know her and saw the heavy loss she endured. How it tore her life apart. In this story you find out the truth. But first you have to read about a family who are all killed except for one. The oldest daughter Alice.
This story is about a family. The trauma a young girl goes through after losing her parents and younger sister. How being treated as a freak in school leads her to having problems. She is seeing ghosts and not feeling very secure in the house with her aunt and uncle. Of course her aunt and uncle are having problems also. Alice just wants some closure. She wants to know what happened and why.
Jess is on this case and also dealing with her own trauma from a year ago. When she lost her child in a horrific wreck that she totally blames herself for. She's wrecked her marriage and her life but attempting to get back on track with her job. She takes this case seriously and to heart. She wants to give Alice closure.
This book will take you to a dark place. A place of death and blame. After a whole family are wiped out, except their older teenaged daughter, people talk. They place blame. Many, including the police, blamed the dad. They think he killed his wife and daughter because the wife had an affair. Whether she had an affair remains to be seen.
I enjoyed this book very much. There were a few things I found to be unbelievable but still enjoyed it. The ending was a bit over the top for me. I can't say more or I would give something away. I won't. I hope it's addressed in a future book though. This story was heartbreaking. It was sad. But it was very good also. I didn't much like many of the characters. Like I hated Mel and Laura. I loved Alice, Jinx, and Jess. They were good and decent. Mel, the aunt, was self-centered in my opinion. Laura, the mother, was just selfish. There are things you just don't do. Not to anyone much less your brother. Even if he was stingy and having affairs on your best friend.
Thank you #NetGalley, #Thomas&Mercer, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.
Four stars.
About
A missing family. A traumatized detective. The past and present collide in a riveting novel of suspense by the USA Today bestselling author of These Still Black Waters, Do No Harm, Behind Every Lie, and The Night Olivia Fell.
Late Christmas Eve, the Harper family’s car crashed on a desolate stretch outside Black Lake. Sixteen-year-old Alice was found injured by the side of the road—alone. It was as if her parents and younger sister, Ella, had simply disappeared.
One year later, Alice is still dealing with nightmares and unanswered questions when she and her friends find Ella’s bloodstained backpack in the basement of an abandoned home. As Detective Jess Lambert investigates, she uncovers dark secrets that put her on a collision course with her past. Jess’s only witness is haunted by her own ghosts—ghosts that might ultimately be connected to Jess.
Jess will do anything to find out what happened to the Harpers—no matter how deep she has to dig. Because neither the living nor the dead are giving up their secrets easily.
Late Christmas Eve, the Harper family’s car crashed on a desolate stretch outside Black Lake. Sixteen-year-old Alice was found injured by the side of the road—alone. It was as if her parents and younger sister, Ella, had simply disappeared.
One year later, Alice is still dealing with nightmares and unanswered questions when she and her friends find Ella’s bloodstained backpack in the basement of an abandoned home. As Detective Jess Lambert investigates, she uncovers dark secrets that put her on a collision course with her past. Jess’s only witness is haunted by her own ghosts—ghosts that might ultimately be connected to Jess.
Jess will do anything to find out what happened to the Harpers—no matter how deep she has to dig. Because neither the living nor the dead are giving up their secrets easily.
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