Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

3.5 stars First of all, I think it is important to note this story involves sexual crimes. It's big element of the story so if that is a topic that you try to avoid reading about, I suggest you take a pass on this book. While I wouldn't say this goes into the most graphic detail I have ever read, it still was disturbing and a lot to mentally process. I read mysteries and thrillers all the time and I would put it in the compelling but tough read category. Crime reporter Sawyer Brooks has tried to leave the past behind her but some things stay with you forever. She has never forgotten that her older sisters left her behind as they fled their hometown of River Rock, and she was left alone to endure horrific abuse. Two teenage girls were murdered in River Rock and their cases remain unsolved. Sawyer's childhood friend went missing and again, the case remains unsolved. While Sawyer has kept her distance from the town she grew up in, she is back hoping to find answers as to what happened to these girls. What will she discover? The story held my interest as there certainly was lot going on and Sawyer was a solid lead character. The story does bounce around occasionally to other characters and in some cases I thought it worked well having different perspectives but in others it didn't feel necessary in order to advance the plot. I feel the author might have been too ambitious in her storytelling as it becomes a bit much in terms of how much feels realistic when you add everything up together. I also thought the plot that kicks off the book started off promising but veered into bad Lifetime movie territory. In general, some elements of the story needed to be more fully fleshed out or abandoned completely. A few less characters might have also helped as it is never a good thing when you are near the end of a book and a character pops up and you struggle to remember who they are. With that being said, I did like this book even though it wasn't a perfect read. In terms of the mystery elements, there was nothing really here that I found surprising but I also read the genre often and it's difficult to catch me completely off guard. I'm curious to see what is in store for Sawyer as this appears to be the first book in a series. If you can handle tough subject material, this is a decent pick.