The Book:
What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan, 2015
The Characters:
Rachel Jenner and her son Ben
DI Jim Clemo
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It’s an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry—until Ben vanishes.
Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone. As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel’s newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister. Inevitably, media attention focuses on Rachel too, and the public’s attitude toward her begins to shift from sympathy to suspicion.
As she desperately pieces together the threadbare clues, Rachel realizes that the greatest dangers may lie not in the anonymous strangers of every parent’s nightmares, but behind the familiar smiles of those she trusts the most.
Where is Ben? The clock is ticking…
The Spoilers:
Rachel found out that Ben’s teacher had taken him. She realized because the teacher knew Ben couldn’t sleep without his blankie, but Ben was embarrassed about this fact and wouldn’t have just told her. When Rachel got to the teacher’s house she found the room where Ben had been kept, but he was already gone. At the same time, Ben was found dumped in the woods where he was taken, barely alive. He survived but was pretty messed up after the abduction. The detective, Jim, had a hard time reconciling the fact that he never solved the case.
The Review:
This is the book that really turned me on to Gilly MacMillan. I thought it was a very well done, creepy thriller. The perfect twisty abduction story, with all the loose ends tied up by the time it finished.
I would’ve like to see more of Jim Clemo, so I’m excited to get to know him more in the next book.
