4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
Audiobook - Narrated by Cassandra Campbell; George Newbern; Kirby Heyborne; Jane Oppenheimer; MacLeod Andrews; Renata Friedman
This was my first novel by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen and I really enjoyed it. I loved the full cast for the narration of the audiobook and though it took a few chapters to figure out who was who, I was soon able to differentiate between them.
This isn't a fast-paced book, but a slow uncovering of the past as we travel with the Malcor family whose son/brother went missing 20 years before as we discover what happened to Davey that night. Each member of the family has dealt with Davey's disappearance differently, though none of them are overly healthy, but how would you deal with or recover from such an event, especially not knowing what happened and always wondering, though never truly believing that he may still be alive.
The story is told from several POVs both in the present and the past; the night Davey goes missing. It's an emotional read, from all of the character's POVs there were times I felt for all of them. My heart broke most for Davey though, knowing even while we learn his story what his ending will be had me really sad.
This was a good, slow-burn read that deals with grief and loss and the damage that can be done to a family and the community, rewriting our story to hide from our choices and how easy it is to blame someone in order to have someone to blame.
I will definitely read or listen to more by this author.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harpercollins Focus for a digital audiobook
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Publish date October 1st 2024
About the book
A small Southern town. An ordinary Saturday night. A little boy disappears without a trace.
Everyone in Wynotte, North Carolina, knows the name Davy Malcor. Knows the video clip of him juggling four balls, "All at the very same time!" Knows the Marty McFly jacket his mother made for his birthday that he wore proudly, and often. But no one knows what happened to him the night he went missing more than twenty years ago.
When the jacket is unexpectedly uncovered, the cold case reopens, and Davy's family is thrust into yet another media storm. But at the heart of the story are four people forever changed by one single Thaddeus Malcor, Davy's older brother, created the life of his dreams by writing a bestselling memoir about his family's experience and is enjoying success and notoriety as a result, even if the memoir doesn't quite reveal the whole story. Tabitha Malcor, his mother, is divorced and living alone, advocating for victims' rights and faithfully cataloging her regrets each week, never including her biggest regret of all. Anissa Weaver was just a kid herself when Davy went missing, and her connection to him is one she cannot reveal as she serves as the Malcor family's Public Information Officer. And, long suspected in Davy's disappearance, Gordon Swift has kept his head down and scraped together a decent life. But the new attention to the case makes it impossible to hide from the public, and the past.
With hauntingly vivid prose, Marybeth Mayhew Whalen peels back the curtain on the inner turmoil of those who were left behind in the small Southern community as they pick up the pieces that remain and press forward into the light to find hope and healing.
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