The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day Published by William Morrow on February 18, 2020
Source: the publisher
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“This might well be my favorite Rader-Day so far: a brilliant premise intriguingly developed, totally believable characters and a climax that took my breath away.” — Ann Cleeves, New York Times bestselling author of The Shetland and Vera Series
From the author of the Edgar Award®-nominated Under A Dark Sky comes an unforgettable, chilling novel about a young woman who recognizes the man who kidnapped her as a child, setting off a search for justice, and into danger.
Most people who go missing are never found. But Alice was the lucky one…
As a child, Alice was stolen from her backyard in a tiny Indiana community, but against the odds, her policeman father tracked her down within twenty-four hours and rescued her from harm. In the aftermath of the crime, her family decided to move to Chicago and close the door on that horrible day.
Yet Alice hasn’t forgotten. She devotes her spare time volunteering for a website called The Doe Pages scrolling through pages upon pages of unidentified people, searching for clues that could help reunite families with their missing loved ones. When a face appears on Alice’s screen that she recognizes, she’s stunned to realize it’s the same man who kidnapped her decades ago. The post is deleted as quickly as it appeared, leaving Alice with more questions than answers.
Embarking on a search for the truth, she enlists the help of friends from The Doe Pages to connect the dots and find her kidnapper before he hurts someone else. Then Alice crosses paths with Merrily Cruz, another woman who’s been hunting for answers of her own. Together, they begin to unravel a dark, painful web of lies that will change what they thought they knew—and could cost them everything.
Twisting and compulsively readable, The Lucky One explores the lies we tell ourselves to feel safe.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
REVIEW:
Alice was kidnapped as a child, but her policeman father found her within a day. He then packed up his family and moved them to another town, where he started a different career. Now, Alice works for her father at his business, and he’s super protective of her. In her spare time, she tries to find missing people that have been posted online, hoping to reconnect loved ones and provide some closure. One day, when she is browsing the missing persons site, she sees a new listing. It seems that the man that kidnapped her many years ago is now missing himself.
At the same time, Merrily is looking for the man that has been like a father to her throughout her life. He has just gone missing, and she feels compelled to find him. Her path crosses with Alice’s one day, and Merrily learns that Alice may be looking for the very same man. So the two team up to try and find him. The thing is that these two women have very different ideas of who that man is.
I had no idea what to expect when Alice and Merrily found one another. What are the odds that they’d both be looking for the same man? The story started out a little bit slower for me, but picked up as I neared the halfway point. As the chapters unfold, there are little twists and turns that come up that threw me for a loop. I would think I had a grasp on solving the case, but then I would find that I was wildly wrong. I could not have foreseen how the book ended, but it was a lot of fun trying to guess while I was reading.
Neither Alice nor Merrily felt much like super-strong characters to me; what I liked about them is that when they decided to go look for this missing man, they were all in. It was both neat and horrifying to watch these two women re-examine their childhoods and their current lives to try to determine how much of what they remember is truth.
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About Lori Rader-Day
Lori Rader-Day is the author of Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She is a three-time Mary Higgins Clark Award nominee, winning the award in 2016. Lori lives in Chicago.
Photo by Iden Ford
About Asheley
Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.
You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.
Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!
This sounds kind of intriguing…. I’m adding this one to my summer reading list. Thank you for being on this tour! Sara @ TLC Book Tours