The Girl Who Was Taken
A Gripping Psychological Thriller
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4.3 • 439 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
One year after escaping her abductor, a woman searches for the girl who didn’t get away in this #1 bestselling forensic thriller laden with grisly details, high tension, and jaw-dropping twists for fans of Riley Sager, Jeneva Rose, and Alex Michaelides.
Is she a survivor? Or a liar?
The night they go missing, high school seniors Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald are at a beach party in their small town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina. Police launch a massive search, but hope is almost lost—until Megan escapes from a bunker deep in the woods. . . . A year later, the bestselling account of her ordeal has made Megan a celebrity. It’s a triumphant story, except for one inconvenient detail: Nicole is still missing.
Nicole’s older sister, Livia, a fellow in forensic pathology, expects that one day soon Nicole’s body will be found and her sister’s fate determined. Instead, the first clue comes from another body—that of a young man connected to Nicole’s past. Livia reaches out to Megan to learn more about that fateful night. Other girls have disappeared, and she’s increasingly sure the cases are connected.
Megan knows more than she revealed in her book. Flashes of memory are pointing to something more monstrous than she described. And the deeper she and Livia dig, the more they realize that sometimes true terror lies in finding exactly what you’ve been looking for . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fast-moving page-turner from Donlea (Summit Lake), fledgling forensic pathologist Livia Cutty is determined to find answers about the fate of her missing sister, Nicole, who vanished from a high school beach party in Emerson Bay, N.C., a year or so earlier, along with classmate Megan McDonald. Megan has become a media darling since her recent escape from the bunker where she was held. A body brought to Livia's Raleigh, N.C., morgue provides her first break. The badly decomposed corpse of a young man with puzzling injuries is identified as that of drifter Casey Delevan. When the news of the man's death goes public as part of a homicide investigation, Livia gets a call from a friend of Nicole's claiming a link between Casey and Nicole. Starting to investigate in earnest with the aid of emotionally fragile Megan, the sympathetic doctor stumbles across a disturbing secret side to her sister and into very real danger. Donlea skillfully maximizes suspense by juggling narrators and time all the way to the shocking albeit implausible final twists.
Customer Reviews
CalVal
A good story, but has some gaps in the details, which may have been intentional, yet made for disjointed reading. Donlea needs to get away from trains. Getting old.
WOW. WOW. WOW.
I was not expecting that ending. . .
Weak plot, lots of repetition.
Sorry, just not a good read. The plot is rather weak and there is a great deal of repetition, repeating the same or similar dialogue. The characters could have been developed more and been more interesting. There are a lot of random characters, like Megan’s high school friends, who have little purpose. The villain seems like an after thought. There is zero character development there. No explanation of purpose and no back story. It was like the author just said, “Oh, who can I pick to be the bad guy, that I mentioned in passing in chapter 2? That’s who my villain will be. No other rhyme or reason. There is no real closure either with no definitive body. I do not recommend this book. Save your time and your money. I’ll not be reading anything more by this author.