Here we are, up to our knees in holiday cheer. I admit that it has all snuck up on me and I feel like it should still be September. Usually at this time of the year, I am already well into my holiday romance binge, but this year I haven't even started. Maybe next week? We will see. In the meantime, I have a suspenseful and gripping mystery – and while it is decidedly un-Christmassy, I think it can still be enjoyed under a cozy blanket by the light of a Christmas tree.
Terri Parlato’s “What Waits in the Woods” is a twisty, psychological thriller that proves you can never truly leave your past behind. We meet Esmé Foster, a former dancer whose promising career was unfortunately cut short by a brutal injury. After years away, she decides it's time to return to her small, suburban hometown of Graybridge, Massachusetts, to help her brother care for their ailing father. It’s not the homecoming she envisioned - it's much, much worse.
Esmé literally arrives home to a police blockade: the body of her high school friend, Kara Cunningham, has been discovered right there in the woods behind the Foster family house. The murder investigation is handled by Detective Rita Myers, a savvy cop who knows that in close-knit communities like Graybridge, the friendliest facades often hide the darkest secrets. As Detective Myers starts pulling on threads, she quickly discovers the town has a history of tragedy and a circle of friends tangled in mistrust.
For Esmé, the case becomes deeply personal and terrifying. Esmé has always been haunted by a traumatic memory from her mother’s fatal car accident years ago - a man who appeared at the scene and threatened her. Was that figure real, or just a concussion-fueled hallucination, as her family always insisted? Now, with Kara dead, Esmé can't shake the chilling suspicion that Kara’s murder was a horrible case of mistaken identity, and she was the killer's intended target all along.
The novel bounces between Esmé’s increasingly unsettling journey of rediscovering her hometown’s buried secrets and Detective Myers's frantic search for a motive and a killer. As Esmé reconnects with old friends and family she thought she knew, she realizes that the woods aren't the only thing holding dark truths. To save herself and bring the nightmare to an end, Esmé must face the possibility that everything she believed about her past - and that horrifying night eleven years ago - might be a lie.
I hope you enjoy this week's book – even if it isn't quite in keeping with the season. Don't forget to pop over to my Instagram @allison.the.reader for more recommendations and book talk.
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