by Stacy Claflin
Alex Mercer #1
Author: Stacy Claflin
Published: February 15th 2017
Number of pages: 317
Format: eBook
Source: free on Kindle
From Goodreads:
He gave up his daughter years ago, but now he’ll risk his life to save hers.
Alex Mercer is no stranger to kidnappings. The emotional scars still run deep from his sister’s disappearance years earlier. His daughter Ariana remains safe long after her adoption, and he cherishes the few times a year he gets to see her. The joy is palpable when he takes her on their first one-on-one outing. At least until he pauses to answer a text and Ariana disappears…
Wracked with guilt and determined to find answers, Alex teams up with an unlikely ally at the police department. As the clues reveal a pattern of missing girls, the kidnapping case becomes a race against time to save Ariana. What cost is Alex willing to pay to keep his daughter alive?
Girl in Trouble is the first book in a series of thrilling stand-alone novels spun off from the USA Today bestselling Gone Trilogy. If you like heart-pounding suspense, page-turning action, and characters you’ll never forget, then you’ll love Stacy Claflin’s engrossing new series.
My Review
I was so happy to finally take up a thriller after months of not reading one - and it's one of my favorite genres! - but now, I wouldn't even classify this book as a thriller.
The story sounds catchy: we have a child being kidnapped, a mention to kidnapping being something that already happened in the family, and the hint of the probable kidnapper being a serial one that operated for years. But "heart - pounding suspense"? "Page-turning action"? Definitely not.
It was a really easy book, that flowed easily because the narrative style of the author is really simple. But there was never a point where I felt any kind of suspense whatsoever. First, because all the story didn't feel real at all. The girl is kidnapped while her father is answering a text and I couldn't quite grasp how he didn't manage to reach that man, he being 25 years old and probably a fast one - the whole scene seemed narrated in slow motion, while I figured he could have reached his daughter easily and the whole book wouldn't even exist. Second, it was so not relatable the fact that this young protagonist, Alex, manages to outsmart the police by solving a case that involved more than 30 disappearances. And all in the blink of an eye! Like, ok, I'm gonna try to investigate by myself... and 20 minutes later he comes out with improbable connections with cases that run through several states. Third, I was really annoyed by how incompetent the police appears. Basically, the key to solve the mystery is given during the first 100 pages, since the protagonist meets the kidnapper at the supermarket - DUH - but it's like all the department simply decides to ignore his statements without reason... oh yes maybe there was one: to make this poor dad emerge like the improbable hero of this story. Fourth, I get to the end of the book, I at least expect some kind of analysis of the kidnapper's behaviour but not just a conclusive chapter where all the info about this central character's past is synthesized at best, to try and make sense. NO NO NO. Personally, the killer/kidnapper's psychosis is what makes the book.
So, as you may have understood, I was not really satisfied with this book. I didn't feel any connection to the characters, or involvement in the story. So I'm giving it 2 stars just because it was really easy to finish due to its total lack of any kind of complexity.
Rated
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