December Book Club: Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight
I feel like all of my trust and hope was just stomped on by the stampede of wildebeests that killed Mufasa. Given the subject matter of this book, I expected an emotional response, but not one quite so intense. Kudos to McCreight, for just, you know, ripping my heart out.
Where They Found Her is about a dead baby. The infant’s body is found on the grounds of a local university in Ridgedale, New Jersey. Molly Sanderson, a journalist for the Ridgedale Reader and a mother still recovering from the loss of her own stillborn child, is tasked with covering the story. However, Molly’s assignment quickly turns from standard local news coverage to a conspiratorial investigation. As more facts surrounding the infant’s death arise, it becomes clear not all is as it seems in Ridgedale. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Well, The Three has been replaced as my favorite book of 2017. Where They Found Her was so intense and it had great characters and I didn’t know who I could trust (NO ONE) and I just really loved this book, okay? Also, I really want to be an investigative journalist, now. Let’s do a character round up, shall we?
Molly: the badass journalist
Justin: Molly’s husband
Sandy: a high school drop out who is trying to get her GED while dealing with her deadbeat mother
Jenna: Sandy’s mom
Barbara: the perfect PTA mom that everyone hates because she’s fussy and judgmental
Steve: chief of police and Barbara’s husband
Hannah: Barbara’s daughter and Sandy’s GED tutor
Cole: Barbara’s young son who appears to be losing his mind
Stella: Molly’s very dramatic friend
Aidan: Stella’s delinquent son
Rose: Stella’s housekeeper, a college dropout who recently gave birth and is in the hospital after a car accident
Erik: Molly’s boss who is out of town for suspicious reasons
Deckler: campus security officer
Thomas Price: Dean of Students at Ridgedale University
As a person who grew up in a small, “well-to-do” town, I can confirm that this is the standard cast of small town America. However, McCreight managed to make these characters distinct and utilized the small town cliché to her advantage. I immediately got conspiracy vibes from this book, especially when Molly discussed the death of a high school student name Simon twenty years earlier at the same bridge where the baby was found. Plus, everyone was suspicious as hell (save Molly, obviously).
This book had a really interesting format that carried the plot along well. The perspective switched between Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, following their lives after the baby was found and raising so many questions. There were also sections that included transcripts from Molly’s therapy sessions, Molly’s articles in the Reader and the comments on those articles, and excerpts from Jenna’s diary from twenty years ago. All these varying perspectives and informational sources raised so many questions.
As we follow Molly, we learn more about the case, and our suspicions are raised as we read her encounters with locals. When she met Deckler at the crime scene, I was immediately skeeved. Why was he so friendly and flirtatious? Why was he so eager to help? Why did he always seem to pop up when Molly was following leads? She also meets with Thomas Price, the Dean of Students, who was way too nice. She also finds a box that someone left in her house. As we follow Barbara, we learn was in going on within her perfect family. She’s nervous about Hannah spending time with Sandy. Her perfect little boy is acting out in school (why?) and he comes home from a play date traumatized and drawing pictures of dismembered bodies (WHY?) Lastly, as we follow Sandy, were learn that her mother is missing, and Hannah keeps sending her text messages, asking if she is okay.
One of the most interesting parts of the book, in my opinion, was the comments section. Within the standard ramblings of Ridgedale citizens, there is a person under the username 246Barry posting creepy comments such as, “FIND HIM BEFORE HE FINDS YOU” and “HE’S STILL OUT THERE.” Who is this person? What do they know?
Molly makes a lot of discoveries, and they just raised even more questions for me. Here is a list:
Obviously, whose baby is it? How did it die?
Molly saw Steve and Thomas Price have a brief conversation after one of her interviews. What were they talking about?
Who are The Captain, Two-Six, and Tex? They were all mentioned in Jenna’s diary.
What is the connection between Simon’s death and the baby?
Where is Erik? His wife told Molly his cousin’s house burned down, but Erik told Molly his uncle died.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX??? Who left it in Molly’s house?
Where is Rose’s baby? Why did she disappear after she was released from the hospital?
Her roommate also alluded to a stalker named Erik. Is it Molly’s boss?
What happened to Cole?
After interviewing the scary man who lives across from the crime scene, Molly discovers that he saw a “ghost” of a blonde woman the night the baby was found, AND the night Simon died. Who is this woman?
He gave Molly a bracelet he found when he saw the “ghost” twenty years before, which had an engraving that read, “To JM. Always, Tex.” ???????? Que?????
While visiting Hannah, Sandy finds Jenna’s necklace in a pill bottle in the medicine cabinet. Why was it there? Who hid it? Where is Jenna?
Who is 246Barry?
Luckily, all of these questions were answered. I must pride myself, because there were some I guessed correctly at the very beginning. However, there were other answers that totally shocked and destroyed me.
It was Hannah’s baby. I was not surprised. She was too unassuming, and Barbara was begging for that karma.
Steve and Price were making sure their agreement to keep each other’s secrets was still intact. But what secrets???
The Captain=Thomas Price. Two-Six=Simon, the dead high schooler. Tex=Steve
Turns out, Thomas Price and Simon raped Jenna. Steve caught them, fought Simon, and accidentally pushed him off the bridge.
Erik is totally innocent in all of this. Rose was a surrogate for him and his wife. She had second thoughts and ran off with the baby. It worked out, and now Erik is a happy dad.
Deckler left the box in Molly’s house. It was filled with files of students who suddenly withdrew from the university. Turns out, Price was sexually assaulting students.
Jenna’s bracelet was found by the bridge after the attack, and she was the “ghost” the neighbor saw twenty years ago.
The “ghost” the neighbor saw the night the baby was found was Sandy. She was at Hannah’s house the night she gave birth. The baby died because the cord was wrapped around her neck. Sandy took the baby to the creek on campus, because Hannah kind of lost her mind.
Cole walked in on Sandy cleaning up the mess, and saw the dead baby, which definitely explains the trauma.
Jenna’s necklace was in Hannah’s house, because she and Barbara had an altercations the night Jenna went missing. Steve used to have feelings for Jenna, and Barbara was paranoid when she suddenly moved back to Ridgedale, so she told her to stay away from her family.
The final discovery I will discuss kind of destroyed me. My heart is in pieces.
So, Molly’s husband Justin. Throughout the whole freaking book, I was in love with him. He was so sweet, he was a wonderful dad, and he did so much to help Molly recover from the loss of her baby. He was a professor at the university, and he and Molly met for lunch at the Black Cat café all the time. I was head over heels for this adorable man. Well, Hannah and Sandy did their tutoring at the Black Cat, and Sandy noticed how Hannah was always adamant about studying there, making her believe Hannah had a crush on someone from the university. With the suspicions rising about Thomas Price, I assumed he was the father of Hannah’s child. Boy, was I dead wrong. Turns out, in the heights of Molly’s grief and depression, Justin had an affair. With Hannah. He was the father of the dead baby. Betrayed. That being said, 246Barry was Stella, trying futilely to hint to Molly through the comments that Justin was involved.
I absolutely loved this book. It was incredibly well written. It was gripping, intense, and had my mind working furiously to solve the mystery. The varying perspectives, the therapy transcripts, the diary excerpts, and the comments section added so much to the story, making Where They Found Her stand out against other crime thrillers. McCreight’s novel was a thrilling investigation into the darker side of polished suburbs.
What did you think of this book? Did the ending surprise you, or did you see some of the answers coming? Was anyone else as traumatized by Justin’s affair as I was? Let me know your thoughts on the book on social media!
