An unusual heroine anchors this creepy, fast-paced chiller. This is Miranda’s best book yet.
Arden Maynor was only 6 when a traumatic event changed her life forever.
Twenty years ago, Arden, who now goes by Olivia Meyer, was swept into Widow Hills, Kentucky’s underground system of pipes during a deluge and was trapped for three days before she was miraculously rescued. The rescue effort was immense, as was the media coverage. Support, monetary and otherwise, for little Arden poured in. Not all of the publicity and attention were good, however, and Olivia, who remembers very little about those three days, has been trying to put the entire incident behind her for a decade. Now she’s a hospital administrator in rural Central Valley, North Carolina, and is starting to feel that the worst is behind her, until she wakes up outside her home after a sleepwalking episode, the same thing that preceded her childhood ordeal. The sleepwalking incident sets her alarm bells clanging, but then she’s approached, in public, by a man who seems to know exactly who she is. She hasn’t even told her closest friend and co-worker, Bennett, about her past. When she awakens outside again one night, there’s a man’s body at her feet and blood covering her hands. The dead man turns out to be a blast from Olivia’s past, and now the police are involved. But Olivia isn’t about to let everything she’s done to put her past behind her come crashing down, even it means opening a Pandora’s box full of secrets that may have been better off left in the dark. Miranda nimbly mines underexplored terrain: the long-term aftermath of dramatic, highly publicized rescues. Olivia's desire to live a life undefined by that one event is relatable, and her amnesia about those three days lets Miranda flaunt her considerable talent for jaw-dropping, yet believable, twists. Even jaded readers might not see this one coming.
An unusual heroine anchors this creepy, fast-paced chiller. This is Miranda’s best book yet.Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6542-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.
Three siblings on very different paths learn that their family home may be haunted by secrets.
Eldest daughter Beth is alone with her fading mother as she takes her final breath and says something about Beth’s long-departed brother and sister, who may not have disappeared forever. Beth is still reeling from the loss of her mother when her estranged siblings show up. Michael, the youngest, hasn’t been home since their father’s disappearance seven years ago. In the meantime, he’s outgrown his siblings, trading his share of the family troubles for a high-paying job in San Jose. Nicole, the middle child, has been overpowered by addiction and prioritized tuning out reality over any sense of responsibility, much to Beth’s disgust. Though their mother’s death marks an ending for the family, it’s also a beginning, as the three siblings realize when they find a disturbing videotape among their parents’ belongings. The video, from 1999, sheds suspicion on their father’s disappearance, linking it to a long-unsolved neighborhood mystery. Was it just a series of unfortunate circumstances that broke the family apart, or does something more sinister underlie the sadness they’ve all found in life? In chapters that rotate among the family’s first-person narratives, the siblings take turns digging up stories and secrets in their search for solace.
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798212182843
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Roberts revisits a favorite theme: The power of community can defeat a great evil.
After escaping from a serial killer, a woman tries to reclaim her life.
After a childhood as an Army brat, Morgan Albright is determined to put down roots. She bought a small house in the perfect neighborhood outside of Baltimore, living with a friend and working two jobs to make ends meet. Morgan’s life is happy and fulfilling, and she is making progress on her financial and career goals. Her perfect world is shattered when someone breaks into her home and murders her roommate. At first, the police assume it was a random act of violence, but after discovering the killer stole Morgan’s identity and her entire savings, they realize the crime fits the profile of a serial killer named Gavin Rozwell. The police inform Morgan that her roommate was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time; she was the real intended target. Morgan’s grief, coupled with the financial devastation from the identity theft, leaves her no choice but to return home to Vermont to live with her mother and grandmother. Morgan reconnects with her family and rebuilds her life, including landing the perfect job and falling in love. The police and FBI pursue Gavin, who continues to stalk and kill women, each time leaving a reminder at the crime scene that shows he’s fixated on Morgan as the one who got away. Roberts shows Gavin’s slow descent into obsession and madness as the inverse of Morgan’s healing journey back to herself and her community. The novel highlights Morgan’s preparations for the inevitable final countdown with Gavin, but the lack of immediacy and urgency of the threat makes for a subdued, restrained thriller.
Roberts revisits a favorite theme: The power of community can defeat a great evil.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284112
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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