Publisher's Weekly Review
In this tense police procedural from Farrell, New York State police investigator Susan Adler, last seen in 2019's I Know Everything, looks into the murder of a state trooper, whose bludgeoned body was left by the side of the Taconic State Parkway. An abandoned car at the crime scene is registered to a Rebecca Hill. When the police check out a report from a physical therapy center about a missing elderly patient, James Darville, they discover Rebecca is James's visiting nurse. Inside James's house, which clearly has been searched, Susan and her team find evidence of a struggle, including blood smears. The police suspect Rebecca abducted James with the aid of an accomplice, but what was her motive? Susan must locate James and Rebecca, and determine who's responsible for their disappearance. Her pursuit of the truth leads to two cold cases involving missing children. Along the way to the thrilling finish, the intricate plot takes many twists and turns. Farrell knows how to keep the pages turning. Agent: Curtis Russell, PS Literary. (Sept.)
Kirkus Review
The killing of a New York police officer during a routine traffic stop turns out to be the tip of a very cold, very massive iceberg. Pulling over Cindy Garland for speeding, Trooper Patrick Kincaid finds blood on her hands, on her clothes, and on the lid of her car's trunk. Before he can make her open the trunk, he's struck down by Trevor Foster, who's been forced to help Cindy dispose of the body in her car by the mysterious Hagen, who's kidnapped his wife and child. This is only the latest in a rash of abductions stretching back to 1982, when Cindy's sister, Sonia, disappeared. Since then, Bonnie Bernstein, Marcus Ruley, and Tiffany Greene have all vanished--maybe at the hands of retired schoolteacher James Darville. Now James and his visiting nurse, Rebecca Hill, are gone as well. A series of interpolated sections show present and past events from James' point of view, but since James has Alzheimer's, his memories are unreliable, incomplete, and riddled with gaps and fabulations, whether he's struggling to remember things on his own or being pressed by others--a compelling metaphor for bewildered readers' own experience. Forced into kidnapping and murder to protect their loved ones, Cindy and Trevor may only be acting out the latest stage of a series of crimes that stretches back as far as the eye can see. No wonder Investigator Susan Adler and ex---forensics specialist Liam Dwyer are utterly overshadowed by the dark web they're sucked into. Long after you've given up ever being able to make sense of this tangle of horrors, Farrell keeps you turning the pages. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
