Eric Rickstad’s ‘What Remains of Her’ Will Steal Your Sleep [REVIEW]

Some secrets must never be told. (Photo by Sarah Horrigan, Flickr)

A grieving recluse. An ethereal girl in the woods. A decades old mystery that’s never been solved. Just how deep have some secrets been buried and at what cost will they be unearthed? Find out in Eric Rickstad’s perplexing new thriller, What Remains of Her. 

William Morrow

Sally and Lucinda. Two little girls. Best friends who share everything, especially secrets. But there are some things that they’ve promised never to tell, especially about the thing they both saw one day deep in the Vermont woods.

Jonah, Sally’s daddy, teaches poetry at the local college. His life may seem ordinary to some, but it was everything to him. Then the unthinkable happens. Both Sally and her mommy, Rebecca, simply vanish without a trace, and suddenly Jonah’s life comes crashing down around his ears.

Nothing seems to indicate what exactly happened either. There is no ransom note. Nothing to indicate that Rebecca didn’t just take Sally and run. The only thing left behind are some of Sally’s drawings, Jonah’s omissions, and a sheriff’s nagging doubts.

As the search for Jonah’s missing family continues, even he falls under harsh scrutiny before the investigation takes an unexpected turn as deep, dark secrets are gradually unearthed… secrets that will shatter every truth any of them have ever known.

What Remains of Her is the kind of delicious thriller that will make your mind race. For example, I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do in Jonah’s situation: would I continue to look for my missing spouse and child? And would I do so for weeks, months, years, or even a lifetime?

Rickstad’s obvious insight into the human psyche drives this novel as Jonah’s fears escalate and his mind weaves a chilling series of “what if’s” as he remembers the last time he ever laid eyes on his family. These incessant questions make for an unsettling story that grips readers so gradually, they won’t feel the coils tighten around them until they gasp for breath. For this is one of those layered novels of unrivaled depth, one that takes us on a ride we simply can’t escape, and which ultimately shocks us as much as it breaks our hearts.

In What Remains of Her, Rickstad delivers a riveting page-turner, a psychological thriller that invades our mind and steals our sleep. In fact, my brain is still reeling after examining the revelations the author unearths by the novel’s end. If you like books by Lisa Gardner and Sarah Graves and are looking for a new thriller writer’s work to sink your teeth into, be sure to add Eric Rickstad to your reading list and put What Remains of Her at the top of your nightstand’s to-be-read pile today!

Eric Rickstad
(Photo by Meridith Levinson)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric Rickstad is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the Canaan Crime Series novels, including The Names of Dead Girls, The Silent Girls, and Lie in Wait.

These dark, psychological page-turners, set in rural Vermont, are heralded as masterful, disturbing, profound and heartbreaking. Rickstad’s first novel, Reap, was a New York Times Noteworthy Novel.

He lives in his home state of Vermont with his wife, daughter, and son, and writes all his first drafts with a pencil in notebooks, often outside in the Vermont woods. Visit his home on the Web at Rickstad.com, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter.

WHAT REMAINS OF HER
By Eric Rickstad
416 pgs. William Morrow. $14.99

Purchase What Remains of Her at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, HarperCollins, IndieBound, and Powell’s.

What Remains of Her is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.