Summary
Two spouses, Richard and Serene awake to a morning of uncanny feelings and to add to their unease, they soon discover their six-year-old son Mark is nowhere to be found. Despite their numerous attempts of searching top and bottom throughout their home, there is no trace of their son. After searching, Serene and Richard finally locate him in his favorite hide-n-go-seek spot in the basement. Unfortunately, they also find themselves submerged in an unspeakable nightmare. Longtime friend Garett and his colleagues of the Welder Viller Police Department seek to get to the bottom of the grim misfortune. Garett’s relentless endeavors to acquire answers are fueled by the pursuit of justice and to find healing within his subdued heart. Emotional confrontation and suspicion, eventually leads to the answer he desires. Though after obtaining the answers he so desperately seeks, it shepherds more sorrow and pain, than all the other events leading up to it.
Plot/Characters
This novel started out great, excellent hook, an interesting murder mystery. I really enjoyed the start of the novel, it really had this budding potential. However, curiosity more then anything kept me going after that. I liked Richard, but Garett was a little hard to like. Many of the supporting characters, except for Aunt Laurel and Mark, were pretty flat. There was little life in them and that made it hard to connect. What was worse, there was head hoping throughout.
Overall
The writings main issue was it told the story rather then showed the story. This meant that every scene and action was robotic. The overall message of the story (which I won’t say more and risk ruining anything) was excellent and worthwhile. I am not sure I liked the ending/outcome after all that build up, but I could see why the author went in that direction. I’d actually started to suspect at one point this might be the conclusion, but the author did good keeping it going until the big reveal. The setting was difficult to visualize and the police procedurals felt very fictional, which made it even more difficult to grasp onto. The ending, much like the middle, stretched out too long and could have easily been wrapped up in a single chapter instead of multiple. Which is surprising considering it was only 99 pages. That being said the story kept me reading because I ‘had to know’ so the tight suspense and promise of resolution was pretty well done overall.
Rating
2.5 stars (rounded up)
Interesting plot, great message, and mediocre writing.
Where did I get it?
Kindle Unlimited
Creating Worlds with Words 