Review: Cemetery Girl by David Bell

Title: Cemetery Girl

Author: David Bell

Published: February 2018, Berkley Books (First Published 2011)

Format: Paperback, 448 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary:

A missing child is
every parent’s nightmare. What comes next is even worse in this riveting
thriller from the bestselling and award-winning author of Bring Her Home. 

Tom
and Abby Stuart had everything: a perfect marriage, successful careers,
and a beautiful twelve-year-old daughter, Caitlin. Then one day Caitlin
vanished without a trace. For a while they grasped at every false hope
and followed every empty lead, but the tragedy ended up changing their
lives, overwhelming them with guilt and dread, and shattering their
marriage.

Four years later, Caitlin is found alive but won’t
discuss where she was or what happened. And when the police arrest a
suspect connected to her disappearance, she refuses to testify. Taking
matters into his own hands, Tom tries to uncover the truth–and finds
that nothing that has happened yet can prepare him for what he is about
to discover.

My thoughts: This is the third book I’ve read by David Bell and I can honestly say, I am a huge fan of his books. I have enjoyed each one I’ve read, falling more and more in love with his writing style and his characters. I find myself completely captivated by the story and the intensity of what is going on that I have a hard time putting the down.

What I love about these books is that as much as they are really good psychological suspense novels, they have such raw emotion written in as well. David Bell explores topics that lend to this in such a natural way, in this case, exploring a father’s pain of losing and then finding his daughter but not quite understanding what really happened to her and definitely not understanding why she stayed away so long. Bell is really able to delve into the psychological aspect of the father’s psyche during all this – how it affects his marriage, how he comes to terms with his daughter returning and how, quite naturally, he wants the man to pay for what he has done to her.

This book is quite gripping and addicting, but what makes it so is the voice. It’s the way the story is told, all from Tom’s point of view and while most of it is told in the present day, there are snippets that go back in time to Tom’s childhood. These are quite telling and give a hint that Tom did not have the best of childhoods and now is starting to unravel at what has happened to his daughter.

This is David Bell’s debut novel, and while I am reading it now, years after it has been released, after I have already read two books he has written after this one, I am astonished at the quality of the writing of this book. Clearly, David Bell has staying power if this was his first novel and he continues to put out amazing books. So far, I’m three for three with this powerhouse of a writer and I cannot wait to read his backlist while I wait for his next novel, Somebody’s Daughter, due out this summer!

***So, a note about the covers…as I mentioned, this was his debut novel originally published in 2011, and was just recently re-released as a mass-market paperback in 2018 with a brand new cover. The cover above is the new cover and the cover below was the original.