Blog Tour: Review of What Remains of Her by Eric Rickstad

Author: Eric Rickstad

Publisher: William Morrow

Date of publication: July 2018

I won’t say a word. Cross my heart and hope to die…

Jonah Baum, a professor of poetry at a local college in Vermont, sees his ordinary life come tumbling down when his wife and young daughter vanish from their home. No evidence of a kidnapping. No sign of murder. No proof that Rebecca didn’t simply abandon her marriage. Just Sally’s crude and chilling drawings, Jonah’s little lies, and the sheriff’s nagging fears that nothing is what it seems.

For Sally’s best friend, Lucinda, it’s something else. She trusts in Sally not to just disappear, not after they’ve shared so many secrets—especially about the woods and what they saw there. But she’ll never tell. No one would believe her anyway.

As the search for Rebecca and Sally intensifies, and as suspicion falls on Jonah, the disappearances become more relentlessly haunting than anyone can imagine. Because what’s seen in the light of day is not nearly as terrifying as what remains hidden in the dark…

In What Remains of Her, Jonah's world ends when his wife, Rebecca, and child, Sally, go missing.  Sally's best friend, Lucinda, thinks a bad man in the woods took them.  But they are never seen again despite many searches in the area.  Years later, Jonah is a recluse living out in the woods when he finds a girl in need of rescuing.  She reminds him of his daughter Sally.  Lucinda, Sally's best friend, has always been haunted by not knowing what happened to Sally.  But when a local girl goes missing, she is determined to find her.

For the most part, I enjoyed this one.  It was a pretty good mystery.  I didn't see the two twists at the end coming, so that was a nice surprise.  I also loved the ending.  I felt so bad for Jonah.  I can't imagine not knowing what happened to your family for 20ish  years.  Having to live in a town where everyone was suspicious of you would be torture.  I could see how Jonah ended up the way he did.  I also liked Lucinda's character.  Losing her friend so young really shaped who she was as an adult. 

My only real complaint about the book was that it did slow down a bit in the middle. But the ending was worth it.  I don't want to talk plot too much because I don't want to give anything away.  I would recommend giving this one a try.  

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Eric Rickstad

Photo by Meridith Levinson

Eric Rickstad is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of The Silent Girls, Lie in Wait, and Reap, novels heralded as intelligent and profound, dark, disturbing, and heartbreaking. He lives in his home state of Vermont with his wife, daughter, and son.

Find out more about Eric at his website, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Instagram Features

Wednesday, July 25th: Instagram: @biblio_files

Thursday, July 26th: Instagram: @strandedinbooks

Friday, July 27th: Instagram: @read.write.coffee

Saturday, July 28th: Instagram: @jenabrownwrites

Sunday, July 29th: Instagram: @brookesbooksandbrews

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Review Stops

Tuesday, July 24th: Jathan & Heather

Wednesday, July 25th: Comfy Reading

Thursday, July 26th: Thoughts From a Highly Caffeinated Mind

Thursday, July 26th: Instagram: @onceupon_a_bookdream

Monday, July 30th: Tina Says…

Wednesday, August 1st: Tales of a Book Addict

Thursday, August 2nd: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Monday, August 6th: Wining Wife

Tuesday, August 7th: Jessicamap Reviews

Wednesday, August 8th: Instagram: @givemeallthebooks

Thursday, August 9th: Instagram: @wherethereadergrows

Monday, August 13th: Wall-to-Wall Books

Tuesday, August 14th: Instagram: @Novelmombooks

Wednesday, August 15th: Into the Hall of Books

Thursday, August 16th: From the TBR Pile

Friday, August 17th: A Bookish Way of Life

TBD: Instagram: @shereadswithcats

Blog Tour: The Silent Girls by Eric Rickstad

Author: Eric Rickstad

Publisher: Witness Impulse

Date of publication: October 2014

With the dead of a bitter Vermont winter closing in, evil is alive and well …

Frank Rath thought he was done with murder when he turned in his detective's badge to become a private investigator and raise a daughter alone. Then the police in his remote rural community of Canaan find an '89 Monte Carlo abandoned by the side of the road, and the beautiful teenage girl who owned the car seems to have disappeared without a trace.

Soon Rath's investigation brings him face-to-face with the darkest abominations of the human soul.

With the consequences of his violent and painful past plaguing him, and young women with secrets vanishing one by one, he discovers once again that even in the smallest towns on the map, evil lurks everywhere—and no one is safe.

Morally complex, seething with wickedness and mystery, and rich in gritty atmosphere and electrifying plot turns, The Silent Girls marks the return of critically acclaimed author Eric Rickstad. Readers of Ian Rankin, Jo Nesbø, and Greg Iles will love this book and find themselves breathless at the incendiary, ambitious, and unforgettable story.

I was in the mood for a good horror novel since I haven't really read a good one since Bird Box.  I had high hopes for The Silent Girls.  Sadly, it didn't live up to its expectations for me.  I got about halfway through and decided to give up. I'm not saying it was badly written, it just never seemed to get off the ground.

It started out promising with a gruesome and eerie opening.  In a flash back, a woman is brutally murdered on Halloween.  Fast forward to the present and private detective Frank Rath has been called to consult on a missing teenager's possible disappearance.    He has his own dark past since his sister and brother-in-law were murdered years before.  But then the book kind of seemed to move at a snail's pace.  I like my horror/thrillers to be fast paced and keep me on my toes.  That wasn't the case for me here.

I have included an excerpt from the book below.  It has gotten other great reviews.  I encourage you to try it out for yourself. Just because it wasn't for me, doesn't mean you won't like it!

Excerpt:

The child stepped into the house and shut the door with a soft click. Its face hovered above the woman's. The woman reached up, clutched the mask's rubbery skin. Pulled. The mask would not come off. She dug her fingers in. Clawed. The mask stretched. The knife sliced. She tore at the mask, gasping. The child had been right.

Monsters did exist.

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About the author:

Eric Rickstad’s taut, chilling literary crime novels strip back the bucolic veneer of rural America and root around in its tragic underbelly. His first novel Reap was a New York Times Noteworthy Book first published by Viking Penguin. His novel THE SILENT GIRLS, from HarperCollins, was published October 28, 2014. His short stories and articles have appeared in many magazines and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He holds an MFA from the University of Virginia where he was a Hoyns Fellow and a Corse Fellow. He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter, and is represented by Philip Spitzer of the Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency.