The Girl Who Was Taken

February 6, 2017
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. Agent: Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary Agency.

May 1, 2017

After two college-bound girls in North Carolina go missing during a beach party, one of them, Megan, escapes. A year later, she reluctantly tells her tale of abduction and survival in a best-selling memoir and in television interviews, but she isn't as healed as everyone thinks--her clouded memory always threatens to clear and reveal details she has forgotten or suppressed. Meanwhile, Livia Cutty, a forensic pathology fellow and the guilt-ridden older sister of Nicole, the still-missing girl, begins an unauthorized investigation into the abductions and possible connections after she learns a man she recently autopsied had been hanging out with Nicole that summer. When Livia asks Megan to help her learn more about the night of the disappearances, both risk discovering things they might not want to know. Readers may roll their eyes at yet another suspense novel with "Girl" in the title, but Donlea's sophomore effort (after Summit Lake) is solid. He effectively tells the story using shifts in time, and despite deploying too much scientific terminology, keeps the reader guessing and second-guessing until the end, thanks to an expertly crafted abundance of potential suspects. VERDICT For fans of medical suspense and forensic thrillers, especially those who like morgue scenes in television crime shows.--Samantha Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY

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