Review: Find the Girl - Helen Phifer
Review: Find the Girl - Book #5 Detective Morgan Brookes - Helen Phifer - January 2022
Hello lovely readers, grab yourself a cuppa and settle in, because today I'm sharing my thoughts on Find the Girl by Helen Phifer - another title found at the Xanadu Book Exchange in Papamoa and it's a mixed bag, if I'm honest with you!
The premise genuinely hooked me from the very first page. That opening image a silk eye mask dotted with blood-red spots lying on an empty sleeping bag, the tent door fluttering open towards silent, dark woods is the kind of atmospheric scene that makes you want to check you've locked the back door. Helen Phifer absolutely knows how to set a scene, and for those of us who love a good camping trip, it gives you serious second thoughts!
Detective Morgan Brookes is a character I warmed to quickly. She's determined, instinctive, and carries just enough personal baggage to feel real rather than fictional. When she discovers that a missing woman's tent has been violently ripped open and the bones found in the forest don't even belong to the woman they're searching for well, the pages practically turned themselves.
The cold case thread linking back twenty years to a killer nicknamed The Travelling Man is genuinely chilling, and I loved the ticking clock urgency of the 72-hour window to find Sara alive. The pacing here is solid and kept me reading well past my bedtime, which my other half was not best pleased about!
However and this is where it edges down towards a borderline three stars for me, I felt let down by how little time was spent on that first historical case. The discovery of remains belonging to a victim from the past felt like such rich, promising territory, and I had really hoped we'd dig deeper into that original story. Instead, it was somewhat glossed over in favour of the present-day investigation. For me personally, that balance felt slightly off, and it left me wanting more than the book was willing to give.
There's also a secondary thread involving a dangerous figure from Morgan's past that adds intrigue, though it occasionally pulled focus in a way that diluted the tension rather than building it.
Overall, Find the Girl is an easy, atmospheric read that thriller fans will enjoy on a rainy afternoon tucked up on the sofa. Just don't go camping any time soon.
Comments
Post a Comment