21 January 2022

This is an intense read. The author crafts a tale that joins fact and fiction which produced a gripping page-turner. I was consumed by this book. The way it is written you almost feel as of you are reading a non-fiction account of a family’s struggle with an unexplained loss. This book is unlike anything I have read before. When you reach for this title, you can expect a gripping, edge of your seat tale that is intense and sad. It is filled with issues faced by an entire community during the early 1990s. This book will keep you awake at night.

This debut novel is a unique blend of fact and fiction. As you read this, you feel all the author’s passions. She managed to not only include factual information about serial killer Jefferey Dahmer but also highlighted various social issues faced by the community of Milwaukee during the early 90s. She also explores the unreliability of memory, and how we cannot always trust our memories. This book is an amazing piece of work, the author did a fantastic job. She covered a wide range of issues while keeping them all relative to the story. I cannot wait to see what Will C. Richards has in sort for us next.

In the summer of 1991, Dee McBride disappeared. The family knew something happened to her because Dee would never have just run away without a word to anyone. While the McBride family is struggling to find Dee, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested, and the press is focused on the gory details of his vile acts. Leaving no time or space for anything about one missing young woman.

Thirty years later, Dee’s mom is running out of time. All she wants is to find her daughter’s body before she dies. In a desperate, last attempt to find Dee the family enlist the help of a famous psychic. This plunges them back into the past and Dee’s sister Peg is forced to look at the summer of 1991 all over again. Reliving a dreadful time for the city, and herself.

This book crawls in under your skin and forces you to look at the world a little differently. The effect change has had on our lives, how we look at and treat people and more importantly how we allow ourselves to be caught up in a media hype. How easily we lose sight of victims while only focusing on the criminal, allowing the monster all the attention.

The characters in this book are broken. Even before Dee’s disappearance, Peg is a mess. This young woman was searching for herself while trying very hard to be there for her little sister. Making huge mistakes and very bad decisions. Peg loved Dee, they had a wonderful bond, yet I felt Peg spent too much time focusing on Dee when she should have looked at her own choices. These two young women show how easily a family can miss dangerous behaviour and how quickly lives can become derailed.

This book is a unique read. I loved it!

If you are fascinated by true crime and serial killers, are passionate about social issues, or simply enjoy an edge of your seat, gripping thriller, then this is the book for you. This is a work of fiction that includes the real-life crimes of a serial killer, which easily makes you forget that you are reading fiction. It’s an intense read that will keep you up at night and leave you with some food for thought as you reach the last page. I highly recommend this book!