“Lucinda lay awake beneath her bedcovers. The wind wailed at her window. Tree branches scraped against the glass like ragged fingernails. It was almost too scary to go into the woods. Almost.
“Under her sheets, she shined her flashlight on the map of the woods she’d drawn with crayons in a sketch pad. She was a good map drawer. She and Sally drew tons of maps in their notebooks. Maps and diagrams of their dig sites, of the pits and the woods. She ripped the page out and folded it up and sneaked it into the pocket of her bib overalls she’d put on after her mother had tucked her in.” (89)
I thought I’d start this review off with a quote from Eric Rickstad’s What Remains of Her. The drawings that Sally makes take a central role in this novel about a father trying to figure out where his daughter and wife disappeared to. All that’s left are Sally’s drawings.
I have to say that this is one of the stranger books I’ve read. It reminded me of some of John Saul’s and Dean Koontz’s earlier novels where something not right is going on, but you’re not quite sure what that thing is. There are a lot of twists and turns in this novel, and while I can often see some of these things coming from a mile, I didn’t here. It’s a novel that will stick with you for a while.
About What Remains of Her
• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (July 24, 2018)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Girlscomes this chilling, harrowing thriller set in rural Vermont about a recluse who believes the young girl he’s found in the woods is the reincarnation of his missing daughter, returned to help him solve her and his wife’s disappearance.
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…
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About Eric Rickstad
Eric Rickstad is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of The Silent Girls, Lie in Wait, and Reap, novels heralded as intelligent and profound, dark, disturbing, and heartbreaking. He lives in his home state of Vermont with his wife, daughter, and son.
Find out more about Eric at his website, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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