Absolutely heart wrenching book. Beautiful. ( )

A great thriller from Rene Denfeld. I got to meet Rene when this book was released and I was moved to tears when she explained how she wrote this story. I finally got around to reading the book (stupid TBR shelf, ugh) and I am so glad that I did. I love that the outcome of this book has happy parts and realistic parts. You can't live through this kind of trauma and not need mental health help. I can't wait to read more of Rene's work in the future. ( )

In The Child Finder Naomi, a private investigator specializing in locating missing children solved the case of a missing girl who had been held captive in a remote, underground bunker. The disturbing similarities of the case reminded her of her own traumatic and shrouded past: one of her only early memories was of escaping an eerily similar situation and being forced to leave her younger sister behind. She never saw her sister again. Now in Portland, where an alarming number of young girls have recently gone missing from the streets, Naomi refocuses her efforts to locate her long-missing sister in addition to combing the city for clues surrounding the girls' disappearances.

I liked the continuation of Naomi's story and her constant, seemingly impossible search for her sister whose name she doesn't even remember, and about whom she's felt a lifetime of guilt. I did have to suspend my disbelief at how the ending and some of the uncanny coincidences came together, but paired with the first book this was a satisfying conclusion to the duology. That at least some aspects of the narrative were also semi-autobiographical lent additional meaning and feeling to the story. ( )

I read The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld awhile back, and have been wanting to read this sequel to that novel. As in the first book, this book is hard to listen to (I listened on audiobook). Denfeld spares no punches when she describes what all the lost and missing children go through in their short lives. Naomi and Jerome, at the end of the last book, were on a mission to find her missing sister, who Naomi hasn't seen for twenty years. Both girls were taken when they were young--Naomi at age 4 and Sarah at age 2. Naomi manages to escape from where they have been held, but can't come back for her sister, and now 20+ years later, she has tracked her down to Iowa. Naomi remembers nothing about her life before her abduction. She can't even remember the name of her little sister. While searching Naomi comes across a young street girl called Celia. Naomi is strangely drawn to this girl, and she tries to help her, but Celia was horribly abused as a young child by her stepfather, and doesn't trust anyone. Naomi discovers a large number of nameless graves in the local graveyard. The graves belong to small children and none are identified, and while she and Jerome are in town, children's bodies are being found in the river. Naomi and Jerome know that something terrible has been happening in this small town for a long time. The book moves along at a quick pace, and more and more horrors are uncovered, but they don't seem to be leading Naomi to her lost sister, until they get a break from something they find in the town archives. This is a terrific two-book series which I highly recommend. The books are raw and horrific, but somehow the book appears to be filled with hope too. ( )

Every bit as good as the first book in the series. I really hope there will be a third! ( )