Book Title: Bring Her Home

Author: David Bell

Genres: Suspense, Adult Fiction

Pub Date: 7/11/17

4 STARS

In the breathtaking new thriller from David Bell, bestselling author of “Since She Went Away” and “Somebody I Used to Know,” the fate of two missing teenage girls becomes a father’s worst nightmare…. 

Just a year and a half after the tragic death of his wife, Bill Price’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Summer, and her best friend, Haley, disappear. Days later, the girls are found in a city park. Haley is dead at the scene, while Summer is left beaten beyond recognition and clinging to life.

As Bill holds vigil over Summer’s bandaged body, the only sound the unconscious girl can make is one cryptic and chilling word: No. And the more time Bill spends with Summer, the more he wonders what happened to her. Or if the injured girl in the hospital bed is really his daughter at all.

When troubling new questions about Summer’s life surface, Bill is not prepared for the aftershocks. He’ll soon discover that both the living and the dead have secrets. And that searching for the truth will tear open old wounds that pierce straight to the heart of his family…

In mid-July, the new Suspenseful Clues and Thrilling Reviews! (the brain child of Chelsea from “The Suspense is Thrilling Me” blog and Sam from “Clues and Reviews” blog), the online book club, announced that their August selection would be “Bring Her Home” by David Bell. Shortly thereafter I went ahead and picked it up, and ever so glad that I did. Suspense/thriller is my genre of choice, which can probably be traced all the way back to childhood and my penchant for reading anything mystery…Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins and later the queen of mystery, Agatha Christie. I am always on the hunt for a new-to-me suspense novelist, who ideally has a back catalog. And thrilled that David Bell does…score!

Although I would have devoured this novel probably within an afternoon/evening, adult responsibilities won out and I had to divide reading over several days. The reader is quickly drawn in by Bell’s words and descriptions about the mystery of what happened to his daughter and her best friend, Haley. Very clearly they weren’t where everyone thought they were on the particular weekend in question.

As the reader turns the page after page, and journeys with Bill in a discovery of what truly happened, we start to get glimpses of the pieces to the mystery. Details start not adding up as one would expect in a carefully planned suspense novel, such as Bring Her Home.

Bell’s characters are finely wrought and work synergistically with the plot to keep the reader constantly moving forward. Twists of course occur…and quite honestly some you will see coming from miles away and others will take you totally by surprise.

For whatever reason, this year of reading I have been paying particular attention to how the writer voices the characters…some have been in the first person but most in third person. And for “Bring Her Home,” I kept thinking about whether or not, the story would have worked better if Bill was narrating in the first person. Just some food for thought.

If thrillers/suspense are in your wheelhouse, I would definitely pick up “Bring her Home.” And added bonus, it isn’t too late to read and participate in the discussion over at both The Suspense is Thrilling Me and Clues and Reviews (you would have only missed out on the giveaway which closed on August 18).