When Detective Kay Sharp first left Mount Chester—population 3,823—in her rear-view mirror, she promised never to look back. The town only contained bad memories and dark secrets. But when a brutal crime surfaces, she finds herself home once more, and this time she’s not going anywhere.

Kay is called to Blackwater River, where the body of a seventeen-year-old girl has been found. Surrounded by snowy peaks and a forest alive with the colours of fall, the victim floats in the water, a hand-carved locket around her neck.

The locket seems strangely familiar. Digging into cold cases, Kay discovers that three-year-old Rose Harrelson was wearing it when she vanished fourteen years ago. In the middle of the night, the little girl’s bedroom—with Mickey Mouse on the wall and a hanging baby mobile—was suddenly empty. The unsolved case still haunts the town.

But the teenager they have found has been dead for only a few hours. If the girl in the river is Rose, where has she been, and who has been hiding her all this time? If she is someone else, why is she wearing the locket, and what happened to the missing child from all those years ago?

Kay knows she must solve the kidnapping in order to untangle the mystery of the dead body. As she unearths a web of lies and deceit spun for decades, the close-knit community will never be the same. And Kay will find herself facing a truly terrifying killer…

58 Chapters | 340pg | 5hr Read

I read this book in one day, pausing only for food and toilet breaks. I hadn’t intended to get sucked into a book today but obviously the book gods were smiling down at me. I’m getting in the holiday mood already, only 1 day till I drive down to Cornwall and I am beyond excited about it.

This is the second book in the Kay Sharp series and unlike the first book, I found this plot more difficult to unravel. The story centres on another missing girl, a dead girl, and some shenanigans thrown in for good measure!

Kay Sharp has not returned to the FBI but instead taken the role of Detective at Mount Chester. Kay along with Elliot start the case as partners before Elliot is charged with the case of a missing girl.

Kay is learning to live with her brother again and learning the ropes of the town she grew up in. The feelings between her and Elliot are still ever present but while they are touched upon by each character those feelings are not acted upon yet.

The killer point of view chapters was again a little creepy. In a way, it’s a good thing because the storytelling is superb and I really feel like I am walking in the shoes of the killer but in another way, the creepy way, it just fills me with adrenaline and a mixture of worry and curiosity.

It took me a lot longer to figure out all the pieces of this plot and what was going to happen. It was a relief to not figure it out as quickly as I did in the first book because I got more enjoyment out of it. This plot was twisted in ways that I wasn’t expecting which also added to the reading enjoyment.

I read this book on Kindle, it was 340 pages long. The story was compelling and the flow of works only encouraged me to read on. Good crime writers are, in my opinion, hard to find and when you find one that you gel with it is like Christmas has come early. I gel with Leslie Wolfe’s writing.

As a character, Kay holds a lot of promise. I enjoy that she had the FBI background but has gone down another path. It gives a good insight into her character, and it makes the way she approaches a crime seem different and more organic. Crime stories always work better when they’re set in a fictional place or a place that isn’t well known. It gives the author more room to play in and often offers a wider plot line than otherwise expected.

There was a lot going on in this book. You have the dual cases ongoing that both Kay and Elliot are working on. Then you have the killer point of views. Then you have the side pieces and characters that were brought forth. Honestly, it was a lot to contend with and it had the possibility of becoming a really confusing read. However, because the characters were so distinct, it allowed the multiple storylines to live cohesively together instead of getting tangled together.

Between the storyline and my own lack of ability to guess the killer early on, this became a stellar read for me. There are another 3 books in the series thus far, so I will probably start on the next book soon.

I give this book: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐