I borrowed this audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: April 20, 2021
Summary:
Elle Castillo once trained as a social worker, supporting young victims of violent crime. Now, she hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing and abducted children.
After four seasons of successfully solving these cases in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Elle decides to tackle her white whale: The Countdown Killer. Twenty years ago, TCK was terrorizing the community, kidnapping and ritualistically murdering three girls over seven days, each a year younger than the last. Then, after he took his eleven-year-old victim, the pattern—and the murders—abruptly stopped. No one has ever known why.
When Elle follows up on a listener tip only to discover the man’s dead body, she feels at fault. Then, within days, a child is abducted—a young girl who seems to fit suspiciously into the TCK sequence halted decades before. While media and law enforcement long ago concluded that TCK had suicided, Elle has never believed TCK was dead. She had hoped her investigation would lay that suspicion to rest, but her podcast seems instead to be inciting new victims.
My thoughts:
I only recently discovered author Amy Suiter Clarke when I read her second book, Lay Your Body Down, which I absolutely loved! So I was thrilled when my friend Bethany selected Girl, 11 for her July #BuriedInBookBuddies buddy read.
I have really come to love the podcast element in books and it is done so well here. And while I will mention this below, I will just say right now, this book is AMAZING on audio. It’s a full-cast narration and the special effects for the podcast segments make this one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to in a while. But back to the story itself. I found myself completely captivated by this one, pulled in right from the start. I loved the cold case element – one of my favorite tropes – and how it plays out here.
There were so many twists and turns to this story and it kept me on edge as to what was going to happen next. I love how skillfully the author manages to weave Elle’s real life with her podcasts as she is trying to track down a serial killer that she believes has started up again after years of quiet. I also loved the author’s portrayal of Elle’s obsession with this case. This in some ways mirrors our own obsession with true crime and serial killers. It was quite fitting that the book opens up with a quote by Michelle McNamara, who was herself determined to take down the Golden State Killer.
For a debut novel, I think Amy Suiter Clarke knocked it out of the park and between the two books I’ve now read by her, she is definitely a must-read author. I look forward to seeing what she writes next!
Audio thoughts:
As I’ve already mentioned, this book was fantastic on audio. Between the full case narration and the special effects used for the introduction to the podcast sections, I found myself completely loving the audiobook. I highly recommend listening to the audio if you are going to pick this one up…it’s definitely the way to go!
