Kidnapping | Book Chatter

The Return of Ellie Black
By Emiko Jean
Simon & Schuster, 9781668023938, May 2024, 320pp.

The Short of It:

Riveting. Impossible to put down.

The Rest of It:

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State. ~ from the Publisher

A missing girl found! GREAT news. Except, Ellie is not the same girl she was when she went missing. Something is up with Ellie and the detectives and her own therapist aren’t really sure what happened to her. Why? Because Ellie isn’t talking.

As Ellie tries to re-insert herself into the life she once knew, through alternating chapters we learn what Ellie endured and how it changed her. We are introduced to many characters and the twists keep coming. Was Ellie a victim, or a willing participant?

I really enjoyed The Return of Ellie Black. It was suspenseful without being too dark. The inner workings of Ellie, post kidnapping are very complex and nothing is cut and dry. As she works through the trauma she endured, Detective Calhoun also works through the pain she felt when her own sister went missing years before.

Psychologically there is a lot to pick apart here. The development of the characters over time is excellent and with every page there are twists and turns and it’s the perfect book to lose yourself in. I read it in just a few sittings. Loved it. It will be on my list of faves at the end of the year.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Falling
By T.J. Newman
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 9781982177881, July 6, 2021, 304pp.

The Short of It:

Lots of hype over this book!! Turned down 41 times before getting published, I can happily tell you that it’s the page turner you want right now.

The Rest of It:

There are 143 passengers on board headed to New York. What they don’t know is that their pilot’s family has been kidnapped and unless he brings the plane down according to the orders he’s been given, his wife and two children will be killed.

Captain Bill Hoffman decides right then and there, that they will NOT kill his family and he will NOT crash the plane. Although he’s told not to alert his crew, he doesn’t see how it can be avoided. He owes it to the passengers to have every chance at survival that they can have.

What a ride.

What you will notice right away is that there is an air of authenticity to the story and that’s probably because T.J. Newman spent years as a flight attendant. The attention to detail puts the reader right on the plane with those passengers. You are in the galley, in the jump seat, scrambling through the cabin trying to save lives. It’s riveting.

Some of the story may not seem plausible but at the same time, given limited means, it’s what the average person would do in that same situation. The last quarter of the book gave me high blood pressure and I could not put it down.

This is what you want in a thriller. Characters you care about, a fast pace, a seemingly impossible situation. It’s good. Throw this in your beach bag and you won’t leave the beach until you’ve turned the last page.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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