Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.
For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.
But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.
Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding? (Pub Date: Aug 12 2025)Looks like this is a new series for Slaughter, but I wish it were a standalone. Of course, that's just a personal opinion, and the difference won't get in the way of your entertainment. This book will have you eating the pages, trust me.
Unfortunately, the story is heartbreaking. Inseparable friends get mixed in dirty business and end up kidnapped on the same day. Emmy regrets having been too engrossed in her own drama, she thinks she could have saved them, so she gives her all to recover them and find out who is behind it. More than a decade later, when it all should have been solved and past them, another girl disappears in a similar manner. And this time, Emmy doesn't have her father and mentor to guide her.
Full disclaimer, I've been a fan of Karin Slaughter since Blindsided. And I can't even point out why. At this point, however, of course some parts that I always find in her books have become something like a cozy couch as I read. One of them is family. Moreover, the importance of dealing with your past. And I want to say this is a theme even more present in this story, but it's probably in all of her stories.
If I have to find fault with this book is how wordy it is. It explains and describes too much. No wonder the number of pages. I wonder if when you reach this point in your career the editor doesn't force you to cut the crap. At the same time I was frowning at this, the pages kept turning at an amazing speed. Karin Slaughter's writing is that magical.
The characters were also very likeable. Even Madison, who we barely meet, left such a scar in my heart. And the dilemmas and issues Emmy needs to fight. And the way Jude is amazing and at the same time human. How Gerald dotes on his youngest the same intensity he regrets how he used to parent before Emmy. The change we see with the Myrna from the beginning and how the years emptied her. No one reading this review will realize it but, the simple fact that I remember the characters' name shows how attached I got to them.
I do feel that some facts got mentioned and never developed, however. The biggest one being the details of the car crash that changed Jude's life. That may be one of the big reasons I regret this being a series. Will they develop them in a later volume? Or were they plotholes, parts the editor I mentioned above could have cut and never managed to? In any case, they made me expect scenes that never arrived, and this was disappointing.
From the length of this review I'm sure you can feel how connected I felt to this book, so of course I'm recommending it not only to Slaughter's fans, but for fans of a more dramatic type of crime books. Nonetheless, I don't recommend it to those who don't like it when the detective's life plays a big part. In fact, this is more about the detective than about the girls missing.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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