Where They Found Her
Summary (from the publisher): From the author of the New York Times bestseller and 2014 Edgar and Anthony nominee Reconstructing Amelia comes another harrowing, gripping novel that marries psychological suspense with an emotionally powerful story about a community struggling with the consequences of a devastating discovery.
At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.
When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults that goes back twenty years.
Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts.
Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined.
At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.
When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults that goes back twenty years.
Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts.
Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined.
Review: I received an advance reader's edition of this book from HarperCollins.
Told from multiple perspectives, this novel is about the discovery and subsequent investigation of a baby's body that is found in the woods near the small college town of Ridgedale, New Jersey. The three main narrators are Molly, a news reporter who is recovering from losing a baby herself, Barbara, a stay at home mom and wife of the police chief who is struggling with her young son's sudden uncharacteristic behavior, and Sandy, a teenager who lives an unpredictable life with her wild and unreliable mother until her mother turns up missing.
I did like how interconnected the characters' storylines were, which I think is representative of a small town but also helped bring the different threads of the novel together. Molly interviews Barbara's husband for the news story she's writing. Barbara's daughter Hannah tutors Sandy. Molly and Barbara both have children in the same kindergarten class. Their kindergarten teacher also helps run a GED program, in which Sandy is enrolled.
I also appreciated that the author took pains to make the characters very different women. For example, Molly previously worked for a pregnancy organization so is sympathetic to the plights of young or poor mothers. However, Barbara is more critical of the situation with the dead baby; "And in a place like Ridgedale, with all that money and all those endless options? Disgusting, really. Never mind that there was only one surefire way to make sure you didn't have a baby you couldn't care for. Don't have sex. Or, for heaven's sake, why not use birth control?" (58).
Throughout the novel, excerpts from Molly's diary, written after the loss of her unborn baby, are included, as well as transcripts from her sessions with her therapist. I didn't find those particularly necessary to the story, since Molly's grief and the state of her marriage are already evident from the chapters from her perspective. The novel also included the online reports for the newspaper Molly posts, including the comments from readers. It felt a bit too trendy for me, however, it was on point with the public viewpoint that informs many of today's investigations.
This novel creates suspense from the opening prologue and the unknown person hiding the baby: "When I pull my hands out, they're covered in blood. For a second I think it's mine. But it's not mine. It's the baby's blood. All over me again, just like it was an hour ago" (2). Throughout, the author strives to continue to keep the suspense high and push the reader onward, with good results. However, one method used was to throw the reader off with suspicious occurrences that end up not being necessarily related to the baby's body at all. For example, Molly catches her boss in a lie about his absence for work. Sandy's mom Jenna is missing, but is that related to the baby's body? And why is Barbara's young son suddenly acting out?
I was frustrated by the conclusion of the novel, which suddenly seemed more about a decades old case rather than the unknown baby that was found. The resolution implicated people I would not have expected, which means the author did her job in keeping the reader in the dark - but aspects of the explanation seemed somewhat farfetched. Additionally, I didn't think the resolution around teenagers Sandy and Hannah was really addressed from a legal standpoint after their involvement was revealed.
Stars: 3
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