Apple of My Eye

by Christine Barfknecht

[zooloo1983]

This is one dark twisty ride. It was crazy but so fricking good! We have a book which is told from multiple POV with multiple stories spanning multiple days and jumping back and forth between days. You really were on the edge of your seat with this.

Laurie is at the towns yearly Apple festival. Her daughter Emily is with her, then an attack comes over her, what this attack is, we aren’t sure. It’s dark and it’s scary and she’s lost in her head somehow. When she wakes up, Emily is gone! This really is my worse nightmare, turning my back for a second and my little one not being there, words can’t express the fear, I would probably have a breakdown. She can’t speak, she can’t communicate and she freaks out when the Sheriff turns up (god he gave me chills and I just wanted him to go away!) but Brad can get through to her. Sheriff Tilton puts everyone on edge and quite frankly (being really polite here) no one likes him and he needs to disappear! Laurie’s husband had died in an accident, and before he died he led the town to believe she was crazy, she’s suspended from her job due to these rumours and he is was a complete douche, the things he did! The problem is, when people are interviewed they are all saying Emily was never there! WTF?!

Brad, the neighbour, is at the festival with his son Luke who he is fighting joint custody for. Enjoying their bonding, they hear Laurie’s scream, and rush to try to help, well until Tilton turns up! He is a fire fighter but needs to change to a less dangerous job role to be there for his son. Plus he has a little crush on Laurie, cute!

Mark, a fire investigator (and Brad’s boss) is brought to us a couple of days before Emily goes missing. Investigating a house fire, and Sheriff Tilton is throwing his weight around. Mark has his own reasons for hating him the slimeball. Mark also has family issues with his daughter running away from home again, and his wife, well things aren’t quite right.

The author has taken a seemingly normal thriller storyline and twists it such a way, you don’t know which way is up and which is down. The execution of it was done in an exquisite way that even though I had an inkling of what was happening, I still didn’t know what know was happening. You didn’t know what was happening with Laurie, you didn’t know if she really should be in the psych ward or not, just adding to all these amazing layers to the story. That being said there is some content in this book which is a bit distressing and violent, it was hard to read, all playing a part in this macabre yet riveting story.