Review by Dana Schmidt, Yankton Community Library
Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight
Review by Dana Schmidt, Yankton Community Library
Where They Found Her is McCreight’s second novel. Her first book,
Reconstructing Amelia, was released in 2013 and was nominated for many
awards. She writes very fast-paced and captivating psychological suspense
mysteries similar to the style of Gone Girl. In both of McCreight’s novels,
the stories begin with a body being discovered and the process of working
backwards to uncover many of the secrets and lies that led to that tragic end.
Her books keep you guessing and trying to solve the mysteries throughout the
whole story, often with unexpected results.
In Where They Found Her, the body of an unknown newborn is found near a
creek in the picturesque town of Ridgedale. The story is told in the alternating
voices of three women from the town whose lives all become unexpectedly
intertwined through this tragedy. Molly, a newspaper reporter who has recently
suffered a miscarriage and a dark depression, is reluctantly assigned when there
is no one else to cover the story. Soon, however, she feels that this story is what
she needs to help her regain the person that she used to be and she becomes
extremely dedicated to finding out the truth about what happened to this poor
child. Sandy is a high school dropout who is used to being judged by others
and taking care of her less-than-perfect mother. But when her mother fails to
return home for several days, she goes in search of her mom, fearing the worst.
Barbara is the president of the PTA and the wife of the Ridgedale Chief of Police.
She works tirelessly to make sure that their lives at least appear as perfect as
possible. When she starts noticing unusual behavior in her preschool son Cole,
she knows he must have experienced something horrible that has traumatized
him and she is determined to get to the bottom of it to help her son.
In her research for the newspaper, Molly discovers that there were only two
murders in the last twenty years in Ridgedale. As the story unfolds, the reader
discovers that this perfect town is actually full of dark secrets and cover-ups.
There are truly several mysteries to figure out along the way, including a
missing person, a history of several female students mysteriously withdrawing
from the local university, and some unanswered questions from another body
that was found nearly a decade earlier that had been ruled as an accident. Is it a
coincidence that this body was found in the same location that the young baby
was found?
Although I enjoyed this
quick read, there were
moments where I felt like
my head was spinning
trying to keep track of all
the connections between
the different characters
in the town. Though
truthfully, I think that is
part of McCreight’s style
in keeping you guessing
that nearly any one of
them could be responsible
in some way for what has
happened. It also is pretty
true to life in a small town
like Ridgedale in which,
it seems, everyone is
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Where They Found Her