Wendy Walker | Book Chatter

Don’t Look For Me
By Wendy Walker
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250198709, September 15, 2020, 352pp.

The Short of It:

Walker hit it out of the park with this one. It met all my reading wants.

The Rest of It:

Molly Clarke suffered a terrible loss. One that involved her young daughter, killed in an accident right in front of her own home. What’s inconceivable to Molly’s family and even Molly herself, is that she was the one behind the wheel. The one who turned as fast as she could, but not fast enough to avoid her daughter running in front of her car.

The family is left utterly distraught. Molly’s older daughter Nic, remembers the moment like it was yesterday and Molly’s husband can’t even bring himself to look at his wife. An accident, yet one so tragic that the family just cannot move past it.

That’s why when Molly Clarke goes missing one stormy night, only to leave her abandoned car and phone behind, people are quick to call it a “walk away”. She just couldn’t live anymore with all those accusing eyes, reminding her every day of what she did.

Did she really walk away? Or has something happened to her?

Don’t Look for Me is a GREAT read and as I mentioned above, it checked all the boxes for me. A good story. Nice plot twists. Characters you care about. Maybe a tad predictable at one point but a good ride to get there. It kept me guessing in a lot of places and had me stopping to piece things together.

I put household chores aside to read it. I read it during the baseball playoffs. I sat on the couch with it when I wasn’t feeling well and it was just what the doc ordered. These days, you gotta keep your mind busy and off of politics and this wretched pandemic. This book helped me do that.

Highly recommend. I’ve read one other book by Walker, Emma in the Night, which I also enjoyed. If you need to immerse yourself into something other than the news, find yourself a copy.

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

Emma in the Night
By Wendy Walker
St. Martin’s Griffin, 9781250141422, August 2018, 336pp.

The Short of It:

No one can be trusted.

The Rest of It:

Three years ago the Tanner sisters disappeared without a trace. One day, Cass shows up on her mother’s doorstep, three years older but without her sister, Emma. When the investigators are called in to question her, she urgently pleads for them to find Emma, who is hopefully still on the island she just escaped from.

The investigators don’t fully believe the story Cass is telling them. Something is off. To complicate things, Cass and Emma’s mother is narcissistic and continues to turn the attention back to herself anytime Cass or Emma is in the spotlight. One of the investigators, Dr. Winter, is very familiar with this disorder since she dealt with it in her own childhood so she watches them all carefully to see if she can decipher what really happened to Emma and Cass.

Emma in the Night is super twisty and delves into some much deeper issues than you might expect. This family is beyond dysfunctional and no one can be trusted which makes for good reading. Until the final pages, I had an idea of what happened to them but nothing solid and I was somewhat off when it was finally revealed.

This is a smart, highly detailed story about a seriously messed-up family. It’s gritty and some parts will leave you cringing. Some of the story lines could be triggering as well so be warned. Overall, I’d recommend it.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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