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An extremely well-executed thriller, riveting in parts, with a shocker of an ending this reader absolutely did not see coming.
The story is told in two timelines: the first occurring in 1998 when a trio of girls, students at Southern State University in North Carolina, go missing.
Our first voice is that of freshman Jessica Fadley, nineteen years old and experiencing life changes away from home, dizzylingly drawn into a new world of parties, alcohol and the giddy freedom available now that she is far away from her overly-involved parents.
In the second timeline, twenty-four years later (present day) Jessica’s younger sister, Lindsey, takes us deeper into an investigation of the mystery of the missing girls, — a mystery that we now know also included Jessica herself, the fourth and final of the disappearances.
In the present timeline, when a body is found at nearby rural Dolls’ Eyes Lake, a duo of true crime podcasters join the cast to tell the developing story through to a hopeful resolution. We will also continue to hear alternating voices of both Jessica (in the past) and Lindsey (in the present), together building insights into both the University backstory and the painful eventual unpacking of the crime decades later.
For the reader, it’s impossible not to be totally wrapped up in Jessica’s lavishly-layered depiction of college life, oozing with nostalgic atmosphere, misogynistic and testosterone-laden suspects, terrifying happenings and slow-as-treacle revelations.
Lindsey’s voice, on the other hand, is cooler and more rational — a voice aligned with that of the reader attempting to make sense of terrible events long in the past, but never resolved.
All in all, the literary result is terrific, and highly recommended for lovers of twisty crime fiction. With the exception of one small patch of somewhat repetitive pacing, I found this book totally engrossing and very hard to put down. And the ending! Kudos to the author for an ending both clever and well worth the wait.
Note: I listened to the audio version of this book by #DreamscapeMedia and found it wonderfully entertaining — the podcasters adding great audio texture to the additional narrative voices.
A great big thank you to #Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
