Review by Booklist Review
Lisa Power is a best-selling thriller writer whose tour de force, Thief River Falls, made her a national celebrity and, of course, a virtual legend in her Minnesota hometown, also called Thief River Falls. But following her breakthrough came a series of tragedies that virtually wiped out her family. Though she continues to make public appearances to promote her work, she has become an emotional recluse. Then a young boy appears on her isolated property. He's obviously experienced a trauma: he doesn't know his or his mother's name or or where he comes from. Worse, it turns out he's witnessed a murder, and there are men chasing him who want him dead. Lisa is determined to rescue him at whatever cost to herself. She realizes helping the boy, whom she's named Purdue, after a character in her book, will probably cost Lisa her life. Getting out of the small town is no easy trick: everyone knows her, and the city fathers, as well as the police, have much to cover up and would prefer that the boy--and now Lisa--were dead. Freeman does a masterful job creating a nightmare scenario of never-ending darkness, roads that go nowhere with bogeymen at every intersection. A disturbing yet compelling thriller.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thriller writer Lisa Power, the heroine of this strong standalone from Thriller Award--winner Freeman (the Jonathan Stride series), hits the jackpot with her latest book, Thief River Falls, the success of which allows her to move to a house near her hometown of Thief River Falls, Minn. Then an amnesiac little boy appears one autumn night, claiming that he witnessed a hideous murder. He says he's being chased by the killers, who include the local police and Denis Farrell, the most powerful man in town--who already was Lisa's mortal enemy. Her attempts to flee with the boy are thwarted by bad weather, and they can't hide because everyone in the area recognizes the famous author. Besides, all Lisa's allies seem determined to betray her, as she strives to act as heroically as her novel's lead character. Readers will admire the skillful way Freeman plays tricks with thriller conventions. Agent: Deborah Schneider: Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
After a runaway boy shows up at her home in rural Minnesota, thriller writer Lisa Power is pulled into a murder plot that is eerily similar to the one in her breakthrough bestseller.The frightened boy, who is about 10 years old, is unable to say what he is running from because he can't remember anything, including his name. A former nurse, the now famous Lisa takes him in, naming him Purdue (it's from a French word for "lost," she explains). She also gave that name to the boy in her bestseller, in which bad guys bury him alive after he witnesses a killing. As bits and pieces of the real-life boy's memory return and the threat to him becomes clear, Lisa encounters cops who are not good and friends who are not trustworthyincluding one who tells her not to make things hard on herself because "all they want is the boy." For Lisa, there seems to be no escape from the "Dark Star" she has been living under since two car accidents, a stroke, and a suicide claimed everyone in her family but her twin brotherwho hasn't been heard from in years. Even if Lisa does give the runaway boy and the boy in the book the same name, she seems largely oblivious to the ties between her fiction and her reality. That's odd considering the pains Freeman (The Crooked Street, 2019, etc.) takes to link them via excerpts of Lisa's novel. His own plot is both shaky and stale, characterizations are not his strong suit, and he seems to have little understanding of how young boys speak.A workmanlike thriller ruled by clichs and missed connections. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
