The USA Today bestselling author of Somebody's Daughter and Layover presents a twist-filled thriller about a troubled family with long-buried secrets...
The past has arrived uninvited at Jason Danvers’s door in the form of his younger sister, Hayden, a former addict who severed all contact with her family as her life spiraled out of control. Now she’s clean and sober but in need of a desperate favor—she asks Jason and his wife to take care of her teenage daughter for forty-eight hours while she handles some business in town.
But Hayden never returns.
Her disappearance brings up more unresolved problems from Jason’s past, including the abrupt departure of his best friend on the night of their high school graduation twenty-seven years earlier. When a body is discovered in the woods, the mysteries of his sister’s life—and possible death—deepen. One by one these events will shatter every expectation Jason has ever had about families, about the awful truths that bind them, and the secrets that should be taken to the grave.
Hayden's life is finally on track. Or so it seems. She is in the middle of mending her life when she shows up on her brother's door asking him and his wife to watch her daughter, Sierra, while she takes care of a few things in town. She soon becomes a missing person with many unanswered questions. Is she in trouble? Did she leave on her own accord with no intentions of returning?
While searching for Jason's missing sister, police identify a body belonging to his best friend that he hasn't seen since high school. Their last words were painful ones during a fight between the two of them, but no one suspected foul play in the disappearance of his friend, Logan. He always spoke of leaving town for good and everyone thought he did exactly that. Now there is reason to believe that there was more between Jason's old friend and his sister. Can the past explain why Hayden is missing and give Jason the answers he seeks today?
This book was steady, strong and very well written. The ending was somewhat predictable, but also surprising at the same time. It did feel a little slow at times but the suspense of it kept me engaged enough to trudge through that.
This is the first book I have ever read by David Bell, and it certainly will NOT be the last. Keep your eyes open for the release of "The Forgotten Girl", scheduled for October 2014.
Disclaimer *I received an uncorrected Advanced Readers Copy of this book in a First Reads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content disclosed in my review. *
