Author: Freida McFadden
Narrator: Shaina Summerville
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Publication Date: September 2021
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: Some doors are locked for a reason…
While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.
Until the day the police arrived at their front door.
Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.
Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.
Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.
As long as they don’t look in her basement.
My Thoughts: I’ve heard so much about this author and am happy that I was finally able to get around to trying her and I went with the audiobook version. I regret that. Allow me to explain. I am a huge fan of the mystery / thriller / suspense genre and have found I enjoy them more when I listen to the audio format, but unfortunately for me, the narration performed by Shaina Summerville was not enjoyable. The various voices she used for the characters sounded forced and over wrought in tone and emotion level. Save yourself the agony and go with the print or e-book format.
The premise of this story is very interesting. Main character Nora Davis is a surgeon whose point of view used in telling the reader about her father, Aaron Nierling, who has been in prison for over 25 years for multiple murders. As a child, she had no idea, but she discovers his secret and is the one who turns him in when she is around 11 or 12 years old. Her mother is also arrested but commits suicide. Nora is sent to live with her grandmother and changes her last name, goes to college, becomes a highly skilled surgeon and is trying to move on with her life and leave her past in the past. Unfortunately for Nora, some of her patients are being found murdered and their hands removed, which is a trademark of her father. This whole scenario rings the creepy bell for me. Is there a copy-cat? Is Nora picking up where her father left off? In addition to Nora, the author deftly throws a couple more potential suspects at the reader to further muddy up the waters. It took me nearly the entire book to decide and guess whether Nora was the killer or if it was someone else.
When the ending comes and the killer’s identity is finally revealed, I was shocked. This author did an excellent job of distracting me with just enough details and red herrings that I didn’t see the linebacker sized surprise waiting to tackle me from left field.
Another aspect of this story that I really enjoyed is hearing Nora’s point of view both in the present and twenty-six years ago. Seeing Nora as a child added to the confusion of whether she is a true protégé of her father’s.
Besides the narration, I took issue with Nora and her hypocrisy. She keeps everyone at arm’s length for obvious reasons. The question is does she do this because she is like her father and can’t be discovered continuing his work or does she do this because she is terrified of how people will react if they found out? Being a surgeon, her reputation is everything, and it would be dragged through the mud once people found out who she really is. When she crosses paths with Brady Mitchell, the guy she dated for three months in college, she is very stand-offish with him. What annoyed me is her reaction when she finds out he has a daughter but kept it from her. What?! Hello?! Are you kidding me here, Nora? You are going to judge Brady when you are keeping the biggest whopper of a secret yourself? People in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing rocks, Miss Nora. I mean, I get it. Keeping quiet about your dad is a legitimate action. I would do the same thing. I just think she overreacted in way too many instances where Brady was concerned.
My Final Verdict: Overall, this was a very good story that kept me engaged all the way to the end. Although I found Nora annoying for a lot of the book, I had a lot of empathy for the situation she found herself in and was hopeful that she really is an innocent party in the events occurring. I highly recommend this story to fans of mystery / suspense / thriller stories who like to be kept on edge and shocked to the core. I will be on the hunt for more of Freida McFadden’s work and look forward to my next read of one of her books.
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