You can use your St. Louis County Library card to borrow titles from these partner libraries:
1 of 1 copy available
The town of Whistling Ridge guards its secrets.
When seventeen-year-old Abigail Blake disappears after a party, her best friend Emma is left with questions no one else can answer. The police initially believe Abi ran away, but Emma doesn't believe that her friend would leave without her, and when disturbing evidence is discovered nearby, the festering secrets and longstanding resentment of both Abigail's family and the people of Whistling Ridge begin to surface with devastating consequences.
Among those secrets: Abi's older brother's passionate, dangerous love for a handsome Romanian immigrant who has recently made his home in the town's trailer park; her younger brother's feeling that he knows information he should tell the police, if only he could put it into words; her father's mercurial rages and her mother's silence. Then there is the rest of Whistling Ridge, where a charismatic preacher advocates for God with language that mirrors violence, all under the sway of the powerful businessman who rules the town.
But Abi has secrets of her own, and the closer Emma grows to unraveling them, the further she feels from her friend. And in a tinderbox of small-town rage, all it will take is just one spark—the truth of what really happened that night—to change their community forever in this "intricate and compelling thriller, beautifully nuanced and wonderfully claustrophobic" (S.J. Watson, New York Times bestselling author).
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
August 3, 2021 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781797124339
- File size: 289982 KB
- Duration: 10:04:07
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
June 21, 2021
Debut novelist Bailey takes a familiar setup—a teenage girl mysteriously disappears during a party in the woods—and turns it into a suspenseful whodunit told in vivid, sensory prose. After 17-year-old Abigail Blake goes missing, Bailey lets the reader wonder who’s to blame. There’s Rat Lă
custă
, a Romanian immigrant who lives in a nearby trailer park; Hunter Maddox, host of the party; Hunter’s shifty father, Jerry; and a host of other locals. Alternating “Then” and “Now” sections build on Abgaili’s best friend Emma Alvarez’s search for the truth as she finds clues such as a shell casing and a tube of lip balm, and the townspeople’s secrets are slowly revealed. Bailey successfully renders character archetypes (hypocritical pastor, abusive veteran father, beaten wife, outcast immigrant) in three-dimensional nuance, and though she handles the suspense well, the delivery of the ultimate reveal, which comes via flashback, feels a bit disappointing, as if the author failed to find a way for the characters to solve the mystery. Still, the simmering tension keeps the pages turning in this slow burn of a story. -
Seventeen-year-old Abi disappears from the Colorado town of Whistling Ridge, leaving behind a violent father, a cowed mother, two brothers trapped in her family's awful dynamics, and Emma, her best friend, who is wracked with guilt because she left Abi alone in the woods that night. Narrator Natalie Simpson does a great job giving voice to the various characters who play significant roles in this audiobook. Simpson was trained as an actress in London and, on occasion, a shadow of an English accent sneaks into her American characters' dialogue, but that doesn't interfere with her overall stellar performance. This is a very good audiobook; listeners should be aware, though, that it is pretty dark. G.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
-