Review: What Remains of Her by Eric Rickstad

What Remains of Her

by Eric Rickstad

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 416

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  I won’t say a word. Cross my heart and hope to die…

Jonah Baum, a professor of poetry at a local college in Vermont, sees his ordinary life come tumbling down when his wife and young daughter vanish from their home. No evidence of a kidnapping. No sign of murder. No proof that Rebecca didn’t simply abandon her marriage. Just Sally’s crude and chilling drawings, Jonah’s little lies, and the sheriff’s nagging fears that nothing is what it seems.

For Sally’s best friend, Lucinda, it’s something else. She trusts in Sally not to just disappear, not after they’ve shared so many secrets—especially about the woods and what they saw there. But she’ll never tell. No one would believe her anyway.

As the search for Rebecca and Sally intensifies, and as suspicion falls on Jonah, the disappearances become more relentlessly haunting than anyone can imagine. Because what’s seen in the light of day is not nearly as terrifying as what remains hidden in the dark…

Kritters Thoughts:  Sometimes you just need a good mystery/thriller to curl up with on a rainy weekend and this book was just that.  A poetry professor who has been wishing for tenure in a small town in Vermont comes home to find his wife and daughter missing and he has no clue as to where they have gone.  25 years later another little girl goes missing and it just seems way to close to the same thing happening again.  

With short chapters this book moved so quickly.  I find books with short chapters, I keep saying oh one more chapter and all of the sudden I am half way or flipping the last page!  I like this set up for mysteries because it keeps the pacing going and going.  

I loved these characters.  Some were easy to trust and hope that they were innocent of all things and then other that made you wonder and uneasy - I loved it.  The culprit in the end came out of left field, but I wasn't disappointed by it.  I think the biggest thing about a mystery is the who dun it in the end and if it is a person from way too far out of left field it can feel unsatisfying.  Instead this book made me go hmm out loud and want to reread to see if I can find a clue that would point to them and that for me makes a mystery so good!

This was my first Eric Rickstad read and I am excited to try another and see if they live up to this one.  Have you read him before?  What should I read next?


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from HarperCollins.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.