(AUDIO) BOOK REVIEW
When Daughters Are Taken
The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea & The Retreat by Mark Edwards — book reviews
You might wonder why I am combining two books in the same review post, but it just so happens that purely coincidentally I listened to these two books directly after each other. I wondered if YouTube had some kind of algorithm to make that happen, as I just randomly choose books recommended.
The authors — Charlie Donlea & Mark Edwards
Charlie Donlea is the author of The Girl Who Was Taken and several other books, such as Summit Lake and The Suicide House. His sixth novel, Twenty Years Later, will be released in January 2022. This author is a #1 bestseller, and his books have been translated in more than a dozen languages in almost thirty countries. Charlie Donlea lives in Chicago with his wife and two children.
Mark Edwards is another bestselling author and has been since his debut in 2013. He has sold over 3.5 million books since that first title, and his books are available in several languages. Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers about everyday people encountering terrifying events. Some of his other titles are Follow You Home, The Devil’s Work and The House Guest. He lives in England with his wife and their three children.
Daughters disappeared — the plots
In The Girl Who Was Taken, two high school seniors disappear. Megan escapes two weeks later, and a year later she’s a bestselling author because of the book she has written about the ordeal. However, Nicole, the girl who has disappeared with her, is still missing. Nicole’s sister is a forensic analysis in training when a body turns up on her table, and she discovers it was her younger sister’s boyfriend. The plot unfolds as Livia investigates further, and Megan helps her. Livia learns details about her sister she hasn’t known, but with every step she comes closer to finding the truth, until there’s an unexpected twist in the story.
The Retreat is about a woman who lost her family — husband and daughter — and because she needs money, she opens her house as a writing retreat. One of her first guests is Lucas, and when he learns about her daughter Lily’s disappearance, he wants to find out what exactly has happened to her. This is when some strange things happen in the house — sounds, singing and items disappearing. When you think you know who has taken Lily, the story twists in a totally different direction.
What I loved about both books
I love a good psychological thriller, and both books are exactly that. Another coincidence of these two books was that both books jumped from past to present and back to tell the story until only the present remains.
Although both books deal with daughters who have disappeared — one a teenager, the other about ten years younger — the stories are not remotely similar. The authors have different styles, both of which I appreciated, and I want to read some of their other books too.
If you are into psychological thrillers, make sure you read these two!
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