Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Marshall (A Killing Cold) delivers a superb mystery about a seemingly standard search and rescue mission in the small Pacific Northwest town of Franklin. Audrey Dixon is a talented volunteer with her local Search and Rescue department. Franklin has seen more than its share of missing persons--especially young women, including Janie Martin, Audrey's best friend who vanished years ago, and Meghan Vale, who's just disappeared. Some residents blame the urban legend of forest witch Jenny Red-Hands for the disappearances, but Audrey doesn't buy it, nor is she convinced by local police's assumption that the girls ran off on their own. Newly dedicated to finding Janie in the wake of Meghan's disappearance, Audrey notices similarities between both disappearances and uncovers evidence that they may involve the city's most powerful family. Marshall takes a familiar premise and pushes it into exciting, experimental directions, switching perspectives between Audrey and a captive victim, and teasing out the potentially supernatural urban legend at the heart of the story. Readers will be thinking about this long after they turn the last page. Agent: Lauren Spieler, Folio Literary. (Feb.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Marshall's (A Killing Cold) latest alternates between two perspectives: that of a girl held prisoner, with only the ghosts of the girls who came before her for company; and that of a haunted search-and-rescue expert determinedly chasing down clues and pushing the limits of her tracking capabilities. The former character, referred to as "Stranger," is losing hope as night falls and her rations dwindle. But the whispers of the Gossamer Girls encourage her to keep searching for a way to escape. The latter character, Audrey Dixon, has been relentlessly driven to find missing people ever since the disappearance of a high school friend. When Audrey learns of the disappearance of the Stranger, she won't stop at anything, even trespass, to follow a clue. As she treks through the woods and crosses boundaries, she lands on the radar of a wealthy, politically connected local clan who seem well-meaning but are hiding secrets. VERDICT Fans of Megan Miranda and Alice Feeney will enjoy the suspense and shocking revelations in Marshall's novel, which goes beyond the typical "missing girls" story to deliver unexpected twists.--Kerri Copus
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young woman locked in an underground bunker and a guilt-ridden search-and-rescue expert drive the dual narratives of Marshall's latest thriller. Stranger is running out of time. It's been several days since her captor opened the door to her prison, and her food supply is running low. She sits in the dark, chained to the wall, surrounded by the carved inscriptions of previous victims and the ghostly whisperings of the "gossamer girls." If Stranger wants to live, she must make a final attempt to escape. High school counselor Audrey Dixon spends much of her free time as an expert search-and-rescue volunteer. Her obsession was born out of the decade-old disappearance of her former best friend, Janie Martin, and the regret she felt over their last conversation. While tracking a 4-year-old boy who's wandered into the woods, Audrey discovers a string of white plastic beads, "witch beads," a token of a local superstition involving a forest witch who saved girls from bad men. Do these beads belong to 17-year-old Meghan Vale, who vanished three months ago? Although the police consider Meghan to be a runaway, Audrey's instincts tell her the teen might have been kidnapped on land belonging to a prominent local family. Her investigation leads her down a dark and unexpected path. With the complex dual narratives and timelines, the author sets up an intriguing premise that, unfortunately, devolves into a series of increasingly bonkers, manipulative plot twists. Likewise, some of the characters' actions are inconsistent. One character wants to call the police when a crime is uncovered, but a few pages later, is dead set against calling them. This makes for muddled, confusing reading. With her canine partner, Barry, the tough but guarded Audrey is an appealing protagonist who deserves an adventure worthy of her SAR skills. Recommended only for die-hard Marshall fans. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
