My thoughts
I've read an enjoyed all of this author's previous books. I enjoyed this one. The best in my opinion was her very first book, A FLICKER IN THE DARK... It was so good.
This book is about a young woman whose sister went missing. Natalie was the oldest of the two sisters. When she went out the window to meet up with someone it was the last time she was seen. Claire seemed to blame herself for what happened. Because she didn't tell. Because she was only eleven and thought she would get in trouble if she told. Natalie was never seen again. The older man that everyone thought she was dating was blamed for her murder. Though no body was ever found he still got life in prison.
Claire went home to see about her mother and ended up staying at the Galloway farm where her sister had worked that last year of her life. She finds a diary written by a teen and starts reading it. That is when this book really takes off. You find out a lot about other missing and possibly abused girls. Including Natalie. Some secrets about their mother are brought forth also.
This book is not at all a thriller but it is a good mystery. I did figure out a few things, but it didn't take away from my interest in any way. I liked Claire. I liked Liam. I was on the fence about her mother until I got to know why she did what she did pushing Claire away. There were some things that I wish would have been written about more. Like Claire and Natalies parents. Yeah they divorced but good grief they certainly should not have. Not over what I found out later was the reason. I just felt like there were a few things unanswered in this book. Little things though.
Well written for the most part. The beginning kind of dragged. But when Claire finds the diary this book is harder to put down.
There is a cult experience in this book. A cult of young ladies being abused. Taken away from their family. Never to be seen or heard from again. A man who likes submissive females I suppose. He gets them at eighteen. They seem to be in need of attention and he preys on that. I do feel like this story was missing something but I can't quite figure out what. I loved the ending. I loved how Liam ended up and how Claire and her mother finally came to terms with each other.
This was good but not as good at A Flicker In The Dark...
Thank you to the publisher for this ARC. Thoughts are strictly my own.
3.75 stars.
About
A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.
With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.
With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
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