Review by Booklist Review
Claire Lou is restarting her life in Portland, Oregon, where she's managed to find a new apartment (never mind the money she still owes on the security deposit) and she's even gotten herself hired as the Portland Post's photographer. Her mother is just two hours away, her older sister is local to Portland, and their younger sister has just returned from Switzerland. But as Marr's (The Missing Sister, 2020) sophomore novel opens, "Secrets never stay buried for long." Once upon a time, Claire was Missy Mo, born in captivity in a basement in which Chet Granger systematically raped and impregnated three kidnapped women. At seven, Missy escaped with her mother and sisters. Twenty years have passed since Chet was imprisoned, but now he's about to get out. Somehow his evil seems to be on replay. Bodies are turning up in cellars and tunnels as Claire discovers murderous notes promising "see you soon, Missy." Somehow, she's got to make the nightmare end before she becomes the next corpse. Marr's #OwnVoices, trust-no-one thriller unravels with horrifying "THEN" interruptions, producing a jolting creepfest of twisted revenge.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
When Claire Lou, the narrator of this unsettling psychological thriller from Marr (The Missing Sister), was seven, she escaped with her mother and two sisters from Chet Granger, who had held them in the basement of his Portland, Ore., house since before she was born. Now, 20 years later, shortly after Claire accepts a freelance gig as a photographer with the Portland Post, she spots a stuffed animal propped up outside a brewery that looks just like one she had as a little girl. On impulse, she goes inside the brewery and takes pictures. The next day, she learns that someone was murdered at the brewery after her visit. More murders follow, and each crime scene includes a memento from Claire's childhood, though she's reluctant to tell the police for fear of becoming a suspect. With Chet about to be paroled from prison, Clair feels added urgency to find the killer before she becomes the next victim. The suspenseful plot is matched by the convincing portrayal of the vulnerable Claire, who just wants to lead a normal life. Marr is a writer to watch. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Twenty years after escaping a hyperextended childhood trauma, a peripatetic photographer touches down in Portland to find even grimmer nightmares awaiting her. Marissa Mo was born into captivity. Her mother, Rosemary, had been kidnapped and impregnated by Chet Granger, and she gave birth to Marissa in the basement where she was kept. A few months later, another of his prisoners gave birth to Jenessa, and a third captive died four years later giving birth to Lily. Eventually Rosemary and the three girls escaped, but not really. Neither Chet's imprisonment nor the cash settlement they'd received restored them to normalcy, and they've all, in their different ways and largely isolated from each other, been living on the brink ever since. Marissa, who's taken the name Claire Lou, has decided to settle in the Oregon city that's home to Jenessa and their two mothers. She quickly snags piecemeal work with the Portland Post and then a full-time job on the basis of pictures she's snapped at the Four Alarm Brewery, which suddenly turn into pictures of possible suspects when the police find the body of a strip-club dancer in a tunnel beneath the pub hours later. A cryptic note reveals that Claire is being watched by someone who knows her horrifying past, someone who's taunting her to be the first on the scene of subsequent tunnel murders. "This isn't my first stalker," she reflects; she's been fleeing the spotlight ever since her escape from Chet. Now Marr presents the cherry on the sundae: Claire learns that Chet's about to be paroled, and he wants to see her and become every inch the father he should've been back then. A deep, deep dive into unspeakable memories and their unimaginably shocking legacy. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
