I was so eager to read this book. Partly because I am such an avid reader of true crime, and Ashley Flowers is the primary host of the wildly successful Crime Junkies podcast. When I got my review copy (thanks to Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley) which I received in exchange for my honest review, I jumped on it and found it to be a pretty good thriller. TBH, it reads like a script for the podcast (which is totally scripted, right down to Brit’s annoying “wait, what?” comments). Ms. Flowers is a good storyteller for sure.

In this one, Margot Davies has returned to her hometown in Indiana to care for her beloved uncle, whose dementia is making it a challenge for him to continue to live alone. A missing child from a neighboring town brings back the horror from Margot’s childhood when her next-door neighbor disappeared, and the similarities between the two disappearances inspires Margot to put her journalistic skills to work in an attempt to solve both cases.

Lots of twisty plotting, and a surprise ending that I suspect will receive mixed reactions. For me, I noticed right away that Ashley’s co-author, Alex Kiester, is not named on the cover or any of the promotional material I have seen. Ms. Kiester has written thrillers and clearly her contribution was major. But followers of Ms. Flowers are probably aware that one of the major criticisms of her work is that she has done more than a little plagiarizing. As a college faculty member, I learned that MANY young people aren’t clear on what constitutes plagiarism — they think Googling, then copy-and-paste “writing” is just fine. I have wondered if Ms. Flowers has honestly thought she was doing the work herself when she copied from other sources for her podcast scripts. Recently, she has been making a huge effort to refer to her “research” and “sources” so it may all be old news. But it got in the way of my being able to just lose myself in the story. So, good for Ms. Flowers — AND Ms. Kiester. Three stars.