[Review] Daughter of Mine - Megan Miranda

Summary: When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance. (Pub Date: Apr 09, 2024)

 

I don't remember much of Megan Miranda's latest works and maybe they may not have an element of permanence in my memory so I can't really compare, but I enjoyed reading this one. 

Hazel comes from a family of policemen, her now deceased father was a well-known figure in their small town, and now both her brothers followed his steps. She's the only one who moved away. But with her father leaving the house only to her and a bad feeling surrounding her childhood former best friend and now wife to one of her brothers, she can't seem to go back to living her new life. It's all calling her, pulling her memories from when her mother suddenly left her behind and took all her father's money, disappearing.

This story starts telling us it hasn't rained in a long time, which gave me that eerie feeling a Stephen King work would, but it strangely never came to anything. Aside from being poetic, the lack of rain doesn't do much for the story, even the car appearing in the town's lake would have been found regardless. That's one point that disappointed me and illustrates one of my issues with the book. There are a lot of loose plots, that may or may not be tied up in the end, and I understand the author wanted to make sure we wouldn't guess everything, but there were times they didn't flow well enough with the story. I wish they had been a little more subtle. 

In any case, this is was gripping from beginning to end. I even dreamed of it the first night, a rare effect for a book to have on me. It may not be a solid 4-star read but the experience made it worth rounding up.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 4 out of 5.