21 Apr / Lies We Bury by Elle Marr [in Booklist]
Claire Lou is restarting her life in Portland, Oregon, where she’s managed to find a new apartment (never mind the money she still owes on the security deposit) and she’s even gotten herself hired as the Portland Post’s photographer. Her mother is just two hours away, her older sister is local to Portland, and their younger sister has just returned from Switzerland. But as Elle Marr’s (The Missing Sister, 2020) sophomore novel opens, “Secrets never stay buried for long.”
Once upon a time, Claire was Missy Mo, born in captivity in a basement in which Chet Granger systematically raped and impregnated three kidnapped women. At 7, Missy escaped with her mother and sisters. Twenty years have passed since Chet was imprisoned, but now he’s about to get out. Somehow his evil seems to be on replay. Bodies are turning up in cellars and tunnels as Claire discovers murderous notes promising “see you soon, Missy.” Somehow, she’s got to make the nightmare end before she becomes the next corpse.
Marr’s #OwnVoices, trust-no-one thriller unravels with horrifying “THEN” interruptions, producing a jolting creepfest of twisted revenge.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist, April 1, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2021