4.5 stars
Another cracking read from Sarah Denzil. But this time there’s snow and Christmas. I love a snowy thriller, especially when it’s morbidly festive… or festively morbid.
The brides in this were excellent. They were each so different and their personalities and pasts made for fantastic characters. Unsurprisingly, Mila was my favourite as I could totally relate to her personality and understood why she was like that.
Lucy was sweet and scarred; while I guessed her link to another character, it showed her in a different light and why she’d made the choices she had. Her relationship with her mother was touching and brought a realistic element to parental views of their children’s partners.
Claire was my least favourite of the brides, and her backstory was nothing new, but I did like Adrianna, and this relationship seemed the most believable as a whole.
Sometimes thriller writers focus too much on plot, at the detriment of the minor characters, but in Find Her, every person we met added something to the story and took it to another level. Jacob’s struggle was particularly tricky to read about, but the subject was handled well and elevated the overall creep factor of the story.
The sense of place was fantastic. Although a locked room mystery appeals to some people, I think it’s more chilling when victims become isolated in a large, desolate space. The location alone is dangerous and brutal, but when you add a killer it’s even scarier.
As with all of Denzil’s books there isn’t just one twist, but several. Some are surprises; others are there to lull the reader into thinking they’ve figured it all out, when really they’ve been given a crumb to distract them from the real shocks.
Gripping, fast paced and chilling, this is an excellent read and I devoured it in just a few hours!