Only Daughter

July 11, 2016
In 2003, 16-year-old Rebecca Winter disappeared from a Canberra suburb. In 2014, a disheveled young woman nabbed for stealing food in a Sydney supermarket stuns police by claiming to be Bec, setting in motion Australian author Snoekstra’s suspenseful if flawed debut. The mystery protagonist, who’s on the run, isn’t really Bec, but simply exploiting their uncanny resemblance. The author ratchets up the tension as the split narrative unreels along dual lines: the final week before Bec vanishes and the days after her doppelganger’s appearance. If continuing to stymie police investigation on the one hand and avoiding slips with Bec’s loved ones on the other weren’t tough enough, the imposter increasingly begins to suspect an even higher-stakes risk—falling victim to the same fate as the girl she’s impersonating. Though Snoekstra fleshes out her present-day protagonist far less than the phantom Bec, her smooth navigation through the twisty plot propels the reader along—until she finally hits the wall with a preposterous denouement. Agent: Mackenzie Fraser-Bub, Fraser-Bub Literary.

Starred review from August 1, 2016

In suburban Australia, an unnamed narrator is arrested for shoplifting and claims to be a girl named Bec Winter, whose disappearance from the area 11 years ago remains unsolved. Her lie quickly spirals into a new life "reunited" with Bec's family, friends, and the detective in charge of the case. Her elation at escaping her own troubles disappears as she realizes she's interfering with the real investigation and may not be fooling everyone from Bec's past. When the imposter receives threatening text messages, she decides she owes it to the real Bec to find out what happened, even if it means risking her own life. The narrative also alternates with the authentic Bec's past, creating an ominous lead-up to her disappearance. Escalating tension and menace will keep readers glued to the pages, leading to a highly satisfying resolution that is both surprising and believable. VERDICT Snoekstra's excellent debut stands out in the crowded psychological suspense field with smart, subtle red herrings and plenty of dark and violent secrets. Recommend to genre aficionados and readers who enjoyed Lisa Lutz's The Passenger.--Emily Byers, Salem P.L., OR

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2016
After her arrest, a woman claims to be a long-missing teenage girl and finds herself living the vanished girl's life only to become ensnared in trying to unravel the truth behind her disappearance.In 2003, 16-year-old Rebecca "Bec" Winter disappeared from a quiet street in Canberra, Australia. The usual investigation efforts stalled due to raging wildfires and came up empty. Fast-forward 11 years, and a woman is arrested for shoplifting in New South Wales. When asked her name, she panics and claims to be Bec because someone once told her she looked like the missing girl. Thus begins the first of too many preposterous occurrences that pepper Snoekstra's debut. The lead detective on the case, Special Investigator Vincent Andopolis, is both thrilled and apprehensive to see Fake Bec: he can't claim credit for having found her in a dark basement somewhere, and she's unsurprisingly tight-lipped on the details of her "abduction." Snoekstra alternates between present-day Fake Bec and 2003 Real Bec, building up to the day of her disappearance. The humdrum teenage world is full of dramatic best friends and a family that barely seems to acknowledge Bec's existence, so focused is it on the happiness of her younger twin brothers, Andrew and Paul. Fake Bec struggles with the expected conundrums of trying to be someone else, heightened by the fact that the other person is a high-profile missing person: how do I maintain the facade? What really happened to my doppelganger? Neither question is very compelling. A premise that could collapse in a light breeze coupled with telegraphed plot twists make for an uninspired entry in the psychological thriller category.

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Starred review from September 15, 2016
A disheveled young woman is arrested for stealing food from a supermarket. Just as the police begin to arrest her, she drops a bombshell: she's Rebecca Winter, who went missing 11 years ago on her way home from work. The problem is that our mysterious narrator (the reader never learns her name) isn't Rebecca Winter, just a lookalike who is trying to escape her own life. As she insinuates herself into Rebecca's world, she realizes that the Winter family is hiding dark secrets, and the deeper she gets into her ruse, the more dangerous it becomes. The real Rebecca's story is told in alternate chapters, and we witness her descent from typical teen to paranoid young woman unsure of the people she should trust the most. Unreliable narrator thrillers are practically a subgenre of their own, and there are two unreliable narrators here as well as a wickedly twisted and fast-paced plot that leaves numerous questions unanswered. Readers who need to like their protagonists to enjoy a book might want to steer cleareveryone in the book has nefarious motivesbut readers who enjoy a creepy thriller that will keep them guessing will be unable to put this down.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)