I cannot for the life of me remember who told me to read this but it sounded right up my alley: a woman (wife and mother Kate Bennett) vanishes into thin air one day; leaving behind her husband and 5 year old daughter. There are no signs of struggle, even her purse is just neatly left on the passenger seat of her car in a parking lot. Eleven years later she shows up at a Montana gas station: haggard, with scars all over her body, clutching a baby. Meanwhile, her husband Scott has moved on and remarried… and her daughter Abbi barely remembers her mother. The story alternates between then (told by Kate) and now (told by Abbi and Meredith – the new wife). As the family takes Kate in and attempts to reintegrate her into society, we learn more and more about what happened to Kate. Sinister secrets, abuse, etc. I felt that this started really strong but kind of fell apart. There are holes in the story and the ending felt a little bit lazy / off the rails to me. I still enjoyed it but was let down by the last twenty percent of the book. I would still recommend it (especially if you love thrillers about cults) but I only netted out medium on this one!
Author: Lucinda Berry
