Carla Kovach
As has been so often the case with my reading in the past ten years or so, this was a freebie on Amazon's kindle shop, meant to entice the reader to get interested enough to buy the following books in the series.
It has not quite worked that way for me, because although "The Next Girl" certainly was a very gripping read, especially as events picked up speed in the last third of the story, I did not get quite as deep "into" it as the author would like. Not her fault, but probably my own way of handling what I sometimes found hard to bear.
A young woman, mother of two small children, disappears on her way home from work, seemingly without a trace. Four years later, just as her husband and the children are coming to terms with her probably being dead and never returning home, an abandoned newborn baby is found - and a DNA test (prompted by an anonymous phone call) shows that it is the missing woman's child.
DI Gina Harte, who investigated the original case when Deborah Jenkins first went missing, has never quite overcome her guilty feeling at having failed back then, not having been able to give the Jenkins family a definite answer as to what happened to Deborah.
Now she gets a second chance at solving the case, and is determined to give it all she can - not easy when her entire department is understaffed and running on a tight budget.
Her own family life is problematic, too; her late husband has left dark memories behind she has never shared with anyone, leading to her daughter becoming more and more estranged.
Is Gina going to find Deborah before it's too late, and will she make her grown-up daughter and granddaughter be part of her life again? Also, there is a budding relationship she does not know yet whether to pursue or not... Enough material for more books in the series :-)
For a change, in this story the investigating officer is not in danger of being hurt or killed herself. But her own memories keep haunting her, being too close to what she believes the missing woman must be going through.
It was the combination of Gina's memories and Deborah's reality during the four years she's been missing that I found hard to bear. Knowing that such horrible things really happen to countless women all over the world, in all parts of society, is bad enough; reading about them is not what I'm looking for in reading for entertainment.
This was the first time I'd come across Carla Kovach and her work. You can learn more about her and her books on her website.
This author isn't in my library so I won't be reading this one, Meike. I am reading a non-fiction titled "Black AF History" by Michael Harriot. It is an interesting book that tells many of the amazing things that Blacks have done in the history of the USA that were never mentioned in the US history books. And it highlights many of the awful things that whites did to the Native Americans and Blacks during this whole time. It is not fun to read but I see it in the US now - where truth is ignored and lies are spun as truth. How we have treated Blacks all of these years is just horrible.
ReplyDeleteYour current read sounds like an important book that should be compulsory reading for everyone in the US.
DeleteAs you say, not fun to read but the truth needs to be told.
I don't think this book would be my cup of tea, but I went on to Internet Archive and found the book you recommended in your last post, and I've started reading it! The one about the teacher in the Yorkshire dales. Thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Jennifer - glad you found it, and I guess as someone who has been working in schools for some years now, you will be able to relate to some of it, even though time and circumstances are very different from your work places.
DeleteI sometimes get the Amazon free books too. Occasionally I will continue the series but not always. This one sounds interesting but not really what I would choose to read. It sounds too much like the news these days!
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly, Bonnie! And while I do recognise the need for raising awareness about such topics, it is not my idea of a relaxing read - which is all I want sometimes.
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