Cemetery Girl by David J. Bell

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis:
For the past four years, Tom and Abby Stuart were living in a nightmare that no parent ever wants to experience - the disappearance of their only child, Caitlin. Tom maintained the hope that he would one day see his daughter alive. Meanwhile, Abby devoted herself to her church and began to move on with her life. As their marriage falls apart, all the bottle emotions come to a head on the day that Abby followed through with her plan for a memorial and headstone to be laid for their daughter. Within days of the memorial, new facts come to light and bring into question everything that either of the parents ever knew of their family.

Review:
This book was recommended to me by a very close friend of mine who thought I would enjoy it. I must admit, her thinking was spot on. Once I began to get into the story, I had a hard time putting the book down. It was a thrill-packed ride from start to finish. The book definitely didn't end the way that I had anticipated and I think that made it more enjoyable. The characters were clearly defined and their dialogue reaffirmed the differences. Some of the characters were quite shady yet had some redeeming qualities that made you wonder if they were truly capable of some of the things occurring in the book.

Although the book had a standard plot centering around a missing young girl and the family's struggle with issues, it was set apart from the usual books by the fact it was written from the father's point of view. We see his struggle with the facts that she may never be coming back, his wife has moved on and everything around him is crumbling. While I think some of the character's actions were a bit overboard, who really knows what a person would do when put in the same situation with the immense amount of pressure on their shoulders? The only drawback of the entire book was that I wanted a bit more in the ending. It seemed so much shorter than the rest of the story but many of the questions brought up in the book were answered by the last page. It still left me wondering about how deeply some of the characters were involved in the poor girl's disappearance and what happened to her throughout the book. I would definitely recommend this book if you're looking for a quickly paced, intense thriller to keep you company through a long night.

Cemetery Girl by David J. Bell is published by NAL/Penguin publishers and was originally released in October 2011. The book is available at many major retailers in hardback, paperback and Kindle form. It can be purchased from Amazon in any form at the link below.
Cemetery Girl by David J. Bell