TW/CW: child abduction, death of a child, alcoholism.
Overall, I really enjoyed this thriller and would recommend it with the understanding that it does not shy away from the subject matter so it won't be a good fit for all readers. I think the subject matter of a serial child murderer is an interesting choice because it immediately increases the tension and stakes in the story. I think having Harriet being the lens that we get most of the backstory through was a great choice. She has a personal connection to the case and says multiple times that she's sick of everyone focusing on The Father instead of the children. She is interviewing the families of the children to see what they want the world to know about their children so they are remembered as the individuals they were and not just victim numbers of a monster. Harriet does have a background in journalism so she has an investigative and inquisitive mind that comes into play later in the story but her focus throughout is 100% on the children.
I thought the pacing in the story was great and really ramped up from mystery to full blown thriller by the end. The beginning of the story was pretty slow and it took me until maybe 20% to be invested. We're following Harriet and Erin separately as they are both going about their lives. I get that this beginning part is more to show the status quo of their lives and how well (or not well) they're handling things. The two women then meet and Erin is initially hesitant but when strange things start happening, she is more willing to hear Harriet out. This starts a domino effect, of sorts, that it really felt like the two women couldn't stop even if they tried. Once Erin started remembering small snippets, she kept wanting to know more. There were times when Erin would be absolutely panicked about having to remember more or trying to figure out what something she remembered meant and Harriet would have to calm her down before they could move on with their investigation. I found there was a good mix of reveals both in the physical world but also in Erin's mind when she'd have breakthroughs in her memory. The stakes were consistently ramped up and there was less and less downtime between events which made this a real page-turner. In the second half of the story, most of the downtime the reader gets is small snippets of Harriet's book of interviews with the other families. I think the addition of these breaks were great as not only a bit of a break for the reader but also to re-center the reader by reminding them what all this action is for, where the investigation is leading. Sure, it would be great to figure out who is leaving Erin these things and why, but we can't forget about the other children.
I really enjoyed the different POV we got throughout the book. We get Harriet, Erin, and then a third POV that only uses nicknames. The third POV was an interesting addition that we don't get right away. We get a good amount of time setting up the story with just Harriet and Erin so when the third perspective comes in, we know it must be somehow related to what is going on with the other women but we just don't know how. We get clarification about half way through the book, but until that point we aren't sure if this other perspective is current day or in the past, or if they have something to do with The Father or not. I think the choices of when to switch POV were used very effectively to build tension and hint at things to come - especially when we figure out where that third perspective fits into the overall narrative.
The main part of the story that fell a little short for me were the characters of Erin and Harriet. To me, they felt a bit underdeveloped to be the main characters. I felt like I knew the same amount of information about them that I knew about the other secondary characters. When we're introduced to them, they are both haunted by The Father in their own way - Harriet is obsessed with the case and using it to work through her memories of her cousins and her grief but Erin is obsessively trying to distance herself from the case. I can understand that, for both women, having something that huge being in your life consistently can leave little room for other hobbies and relationships. However, as a reader, I really wanted both of them to have something else going on in their lives. The plot of the story was very intriguing and I did like how we got a little more history of both women as the story progressed, but as a character-focused reader, I wasn't really attached to or interested in these characters specifically. It is a little hard to describe, but it felt like they were place holder characters that were waiting to be more developed in later drafts. I wanted more background, more hopes and dreams, more hobbies, more friends so we can get an outsider's perspective. To be clear, I don't think missing these details would be considered a plot hole or anything like that. I think we get the bare minimum of details needed to show the stakes each character has in finding out the truth as well as explaining their drive to get answers. And for more plot-driven readers, that might be the perfect amount of character development but I just wanted more and the story lacking those details did make the reveals and twists hit less because I was less invested in the characters.
I really enjoyed the investigation as well as the ending, which I think are key points to hit home when it comes to mystery/thrillers. I thought the investigation path was really well paced and made sense of what led them from one plot point to the next. I also found the path of the investigation to be pretty realistic considering the two women didn't have any sort of extra skills or access to investigate - gotta love a mystery solved by Google and social media sleuthing! The thriller aspect really cranked up in the last 1/3 of the book when the past and the present collide. When it came to the twists in the ending, I could see most of them coming and it felt like that was done on purpose. I think there's a lot of aspects mentioned early on that get included in the ending so even the twists felt almost like a logical conclusion to the investigation (well if we know X and Y, then of course A and B would have happened, for example). Of course, maybe other readers who don't read as many thrillers might not be able to see what was coming. This isn't one of those mysteries where the ending twists comes out of absolutely nowhere which I think is for the best. I really felt like this story was equally about solving the mystery of The Father along with healing from the past. So many points along the investigation, Harriet would check in with Erin and ask her if they should continue or if they should just pass the information along to the police and be done. The amount of agency that Erin had now that she is ready to find out the truth was really great. I think it was extra important since she was abducted when she was so young so now she can take back her life, in a way, and move forward finally. This is really made clear at one particular point in the ending climax that I found particularly impactful.
Overall, I enjoyed this mystery/thriller. I loved the pacing, the investigation, and the ending but found the characters a little underdeveloped for my personal taste.
Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC in exchange for review
Expected publication date is September 7, 2021.
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