72. When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

listened on Libby, borrowed from Library

narrated by Marin Ireland

Unabridged audio (11:29)
2021
371 pgs.
Adult Mystery set 28 years ago (hard to call in HistFict!!)
Finished  6/30/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.92 - 20,891 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1993 Mendocino, California

First line/s: "The mother who tore off her dress when the police came to her house with the news and then ran down the street in only her shoes, while her neighbors, even the ones who knew her well, hid behind their doors and windows, afraid of her grief."

My comments: A very intense story about child abduction/s and one woman who has overcome a rough childhood in foster care to become tough, smart detective bent on saving kids. This is a good mystery with the unfolding of her own story beautifully woven in.  Set in Mendocino, California in 1993 - no cell phones or internet!

Goodreads synopsis:   Anna Hart is a missing persons detective in San Francisco. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns a local teenage girl has gone missing. The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna's childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever.
        As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with the missing girl, she must accept that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.
        Weaving together actual cases of missing persons, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate, necessary redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives--and our faith in one another.

        From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife comes a novel of intertwined destinies and heart-wrenching suspense: A detective hiding away from the world. A series of disappearances that reach into her past. Can solving them help her heal?

37. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

listened on Libby/borrowed from the Library

narrated by Helen Duff - wonderful (three different accents, male, female, child seamlessly)

Unabridged audio (10:12)
2017
359 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Thriller
Finished 4/11/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.04 - 266,495 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary America

First line/s: "Those months, the months before she disappeared, were the best months.  Really.  Just the best."

My comments: Even though you knew pretty much exactly what had happened from very near the beginning of the book, I did enjoy listening to the story unfold in its various voices.  Yes, very sad story for everyone involved, but watching Laurel move through this decade of heartbreak from her point of view was particularly well done, I think.  The only character I didn't feel was as completely created as the rest was that of Floyd, and his part in the story didn't quite make sense to me.  I couldn't put this down.  Wonderful reader who could switch accents from British to Irish to American seamlessly, as well as adjusting voice to male, female, child.

Goodreads synopsis:  THEN
          She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.
                    NOW         

          It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter.
          And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.
          Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter.
          Poppy is precocious and pretty - and meeting her completely takes Laurel's breath away.
          Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.
          What happened to Ellie? Where did she go?
          Who still has secrets to hide?

81. A Perfect Evil by Alex Kava

#1 Maggie O'Dell
listened on Audible
narrated by Richard Rowan
Unabridged audio (10:42)
originally 2000
480 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 5/20/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.03 - 16,982 ratings
My rating: 2
Setting: contemporary Nebraska

First line/s:  "Nick Morelli wished the woman beneath him wore less makeup."

My comments: I'm going to start with a spoiler:  the murderer gets away with it.  We know who he is and they know who he is, but he is slick and good at his evil.  The book also ends with Albert Stuckey, the horrible, grizzly murderer who had captured Maggie previously, escaping from prison.  Book two will continue with this part of the storyline.  I have no interest in it at all and will not be reading it.  I don't think there is a single character in this book that I liked, other than a little kid who gets kidnapped and whose thoughts we are able to access.  Definitely not a favorite, nor an author I will return to.

Goodreads synopsis:  A killer is watching . . .
          The brutal murders of three young boys paralyze the citizens of Platte City, Nebraska. What's worse is the grim realization that the man recently executed for the crimes was a copycat. When Sheriff Nick Morrelli is called to the scene of another grisly murder, it becomes clear that the real predator is still at large, waiting to kill again.
          Morreli understands the urgency of the case terrorizing his community, but it's the experienced eye of FBI criminal profiler Maggie O'Dell that pinpoints the true nature of the evil behind the killings -- a revelation made all the more horrific when Morrelli's own nephew goes missing.
          Maggie understands something else: the killer is enjoying himself, relishing his ability to stay one step ahead of her, making this case more personal by the hour. Because out there, watching, is a killer with a heart of pure and perfect evil.

6. Truth and Lies by Caroline Mitchell

listened to eAudio on Audible
narrated  by Elizabeth Knowelden
Unabridged audio (10:22)
2018 Thomas & Mercer
344 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Serial Killer
Finished 1/11/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.27 - 7121 ratings
My rating: 3.5/4
Setting: contemporary Great Britain

First line/s:  "1986:  It was the scratching noise that brought Poppy down to the place where she wasn't allowed to go."

My comments:  Throughout the reading of this entire book I had a jittery, nervous, uncomfortable feeling.  I guess I was just incredibly pput off the the loathsomeness of Lillian Grimes.  And it looks like her presence will be front and center in future books in the series, so I'm reluctant to continue.  Creep, disconcerting feeling.  I can't say that the protagonist is one of my favorites, either.  The story twists and turns as it twines a current day kidnapping with the scandalous serial murders of the Grimes family years previously.  The kicker is that the smart, dedicated copy, Amy Winters, is the youngest daughter of these killers, a fact that she doesn't remember and hasn't been told...until the beginning of this book, when she receives a letter from her birth mother from prison.  A wild ride.

Goodreads synopsis:  Meet Amy Winter: Detective Inspector, daughter of a serial killer.
          DI Amy Winter is hoping to follow in the footsteps of her highly respected police officer father. But when a letter arrives from the prison cell of Lillian Grimes, one half of a notorious husband-and-wife serial-killer team, it contains a revelation that will tear her life apart.
          Responsible for a string of heinous killings decades ago, Lillian is pure evil. A psychopathic murderer. And Amy’s biological mother. Now, she is ready to reveal the location of three of her victims—but only if Amy plays along with her twisted game.
           While her fellow detectives frantically search for a young girl taken from her mother’s doorstep, Amy must confront her own dark past. Haunted by blurred memories of a sister who sacrificed herself to save her, Amy faces a race against time to uncover the missing bodies.
          But what if, from behind bars, Grimes has been pulling the strings even tighter than Amy thought? And can she overcome her demons to prevent another murder?

118. The Child Finder by Renee Denfeld

#1 Naomi Cottle
Listened to audio - on Audible
narrated  by Alyssa Bresnahan
Unabridged audio (8:40)
2017, Harper
274 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished  11/23/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.97 - 30,045 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Oregon woods

First line/s::  "The home was a small yellow cottage on an empty street. There was something dispirited about it, but Naomi was used to that."

My comments: Finished this in the air approaching Oakland.  Super interesting!  A woman who had been a captive and escaped as a child becomes a child finder herself, as she oh-s-slowly begins to remember bits and pieces of her past.  The story flips back and forth between Naomi (the protagonist) and Madison/the Snowgirl, who Naomi is trying to find in the present.  Fascinating story.

Goodreads synopsis:  A haunting, atmospheric, and deeply suspenseful novel from the acclaimed author of The Enchanted about an investigator who must use her unique insights to find a missing little girl.
          "Where are you, Madison Culver? Flying with the angels, a silver speck on a wing? Are you dreaming, buried under snow? Or—is it possible—you are still alive?"
          Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family was choosing a Christmas tree in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest. She would be eight-years-old now—if she has survived. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, certain someone took her, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as "the Child Finder," Naomi is their last hope.
          Naomi’s methodical search takes her deep into the icy, mysterious forest in the Pacific Northwest, and into her own fragmented past. She understands children like Madison because once upon a time, she was a lost girl, too.
          As Naomi relentlessly pursues and slowly uncovers the truth behind Madison’s disappearance, shards of a dark dream pierce the defenses that have protected her, reminding her of a terrible loss she feels but cannot remember. If she finds Madison, will Naomi ultimately unlock the secrets of her own life?
          Told in the alternating voices of Naomi and a deeply imaginative child, The Child Finder is a breathtaking, exquisitely rendered literary page-turner about redemption, the line between reality and memories and dreams, and the human capacity to survive.

54. The Body Keeper by Anne Frasier

#3 Det. Jude Fontaine
listened on Audible
read by Emily Sutton-Smith
Unabridged audio (9:10)
2019 Thomas & Mecer
300 pgs.
Adult Detective Series
Finished 6/14/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.53 - 1097 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting: Contemporary Minneapolis

First line/s:  "Once the bodies were loaded, she slid into the driver's seat, turned the ignition key --- and heard nothing but a terrifying click."

My comments:  Frasier is a superb writer and storyteller.  She puts you directly into the heads of each of her characters so that you can see and feel what they’re thinking and why they’re doing what they’re doing.  The icy cold Minneapolis winter setting is also a solid character in the story, and she has flushed out its attributes as clearly as those as her characters. I certainly hope that this does not finish the series for Jude Fontaine, though it does wrap up really nicely and well. I so want to re-engage with these characters. A brilliant book that I greatly enjoyed.

Goodreads synopsis: The Thriller Award–winning series continues as Detective Jude Fontaine finds a decades-old connection to missing children that will freeze her blood. A boy’s frozen body is found trapped in the ice of a Minneapolis lake.