Description from Amazon:
California, 1990—four years after Lauren
Lawton’s sixteen-year-old daughter disappeared, the world has given up the girl
for dead. Lauren’s husband took his own life. Her younger daughter Leah is
still looking for what’s left of her childhood. But Lauren never surrendered.
She knows who took her child, and there’s not a shred of evidence against him.
Seeking a fresh start, Lauren and Leah move to idyllic Oak Knoll. So does
Lauren’s suspect. And suddenly it feels like history is about to repeat itself.
Leah is turning sixteen, and Oak Knoll has a cunning predator on the hunt. But
as sheriff’s detective Tony Mendez and his team sift through the circumstances
of an increasingly disturbing case, a stunning question changes everything they
thought they knew. . . .
This was the first Tami Hoag book I’ve read,
and other reviewers said that it wasn’t her best. Plus, it’s the third in the series,
so that didn’t help. Well, I didn’t love it.
Lauren is convinced she knows who took her
child: Roland Ballencoa. But she cannot prove it, and he knows every police
procedure in the book, so is able to get a restraining order against her. Now,
while I’ll never know the pain of a mother losing a child and a husband in
these circumstances, the way Lauren is so unhinged and places Leah in danger by
moving to where Roland lives is crazy. Her actions and her continual berating of
the police for not doing anything “more” (hello, their hands are tied due to
certain procedures) becomes monotonous. Take into account the year this is set
in and you know so many tests we have now were not available then.
Leah is trying to be the perfect daughter so
that her mom will notice her because it seems Lauren is wholly fixated on her
missing daughter. But this intense desire leads her to self harm and this arc
is never finished in the book.
The two cops were interesting characters,
but since I didn’t know them from the first books, I didn’t connect with them.
The book doesn’t really have an ending wrap
per se, and questions remain unanswered. The whole book that Lauren was writing
felt unnecessary and her intensity OTT.
Another author to remove from the reading
list. Let’s rather check out some indie authors in 2026!
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