JDCMustReadBooks

By:  Sarah Graves

Series:  Lizzie Snow #2

ISBN: 9780553390438

Publisher: Random House

Publication Date: 1/12/2016

Format: Hardcover 

My Rating: 4 Stars 

A special thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Graves returns with more mystery and suspense, following Winter At the Door (recommend reading prior to #2) to learn the background of Lizzie Snow. A homicide detective, who has left Boston for Bearkill, Maine-- with her second installment, THE GIRLS SHE LEFT BEHIND, she continues to look for her niece who went missing after her sister was found murdered.

New Haven, CT: As the book opens we meet two cousins, fifteen-years-old—often mistaken for sisters. Their mothers were sisters. One was the good girl (Janie), attending knitting classes, always agonizing over her sins, the other (Cam) wild one, very good at convincing her to do bad things.

Leaving the youth group, they are abducted by a sexual predator and imprisoned in a basement with two other girls. Jane manages to escape and tells no one—while believing Cam is dead. But is she? And what about the other girls?

Fifteen years later, nightmares. Terrified, traumatized, drugged. Three saved from basement prison. Someone left their cousin in the hands of a monster. Secrets. Now, what will she tell?

Lizzie Snow has a lot on her plate. She is dealing with a forest fire out of control and now a local teen has gone missing (plus her men). A fourteen-year-old along with her older boyfriend. Lizzie is working with Dylan, a murder cop—she knows all too well about missing girls: the found ones, and the ones; never found. However, in this town, if she were a teen--she probably would have run herself.

Tara had taken off several other times and always returns; however, this time, they are not so sure. To make matters worse, Henry, a kidnapper and rapist escaped from a locked hospital ward in Connecticut, who had held three girls’ prisoner for fifteen years --has escaped and may be in Bearkill.

Tara thought of calling home, but she would explain when she returned home. Someone traps, cages, preyed upon women, and brutalizes them.

Then there is Tara’s mother, a desperate text—the mother is hiding something—more lies. Lizzie is getting annoyed. What is Peg (Tara’s mom) the volunteer firefighter lying about?

"Secrets like Peg's were like acid. They ate through you. If you kept them, they ate right through your soul."

Someone else is looking for Tara and Henry. A victim of the monster, Jane (survivor) is also hiding a secret.

Who is the real monster?

From past to present. A box, a grave, a motel, a fire. The case fifteen years ago, combines with the present. Sexual crimes. How are the two events connected? Dark, complex, clever and twisted.

Revenge! As always, Sarah Graves keeps you in suspense with multi-level mystery, crossing into psycho-thriller, with many twists and turns.

We continue to learn more about Lizzie’s haunting past, and her present situation. From her ongoing search for her niece, her old partner, and of course always plenty of new crimes and drama in Bearkill. Graves definitely knows her way around the Great North Woods.

Hoping Lizzie finds her niece in the next installment and decides on her man.

Lizzie Snow #1