The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey

 

First Line: That summer, the summer of '77, everything had edges.

 

The summer of 1977 is when everything changes for a group of friends in Pantown, Minnesota. Instead of nighttime swimming parties at the quarry, going to the county fair, and playing games in the tunnels underneath the town, Heather finds herself trapped in a nightmare. 

She and her friend Brenda see something they can't forget. Something they decide never to tell a soul. But then their friend disappears-- the second girl to vanish in a week. What Heather can't understand is why the police don't want to investigate. She's scared to death that the missing girls are connected to what she and Brenda saw that night, so she decides to start looking for answers on her own.

What she learns is that no one in Pantown is who they seem to be. No one. Not the police. Not the boys at the quarry. Not even her parents. But she can't stop digging. Those missing girls are in danger... and she knows that she may be next.

~

When you need to read something that takes your mind off the fact that you're lying in an emergency room bed waiting for test results, pick up a copy of Jess Lourey's The Quarry Girls. In reading the history of "Pantown", Minnesota, I learned that a factory owner built his factory as well as a town for his workers to live in. To prevent any work stoppages during the often brutal winter weather, he also built a series of tunnels between the factory and the housing development. I don't like being underground, so that was the first time my mental "red alert" siren went off. Then I learned that an "underground maze connected everybody's basements." With the addition of a few more little tidbits, my imagination went to town, and I read the rest of the novel feeling-- for the lack of a better term-- creeped out.

The Quarry Girls is told from the point of view of teenage Heather, who has a twelve-year-old sister, Junie, a manic-depressive mother who's zoned out more than she's zoned in, and a father who's the district attorney and spends most of his time at work. Heather has been the real caregiver of the family. She makes sure meals are on the table, the laundry is done, and Junie is doing what she should be, as well as keeping an eye on her mother. This young girl is not only the caregiver of her family but she also feels the need to protect her friends. That's an awful lot of responsibility for such young shoulders.

When her friends go missing, Heather waits for the police to do their job, but when they don't, she starts searching for answers. She must save her friends. The truth that she finds isn't very palatable. The people she thought she knew and could trust aren't who they seem to be. She learns that Pantown is the type of place where "If we didn't like something, we simply didn't see it." The more she learns, the more she realizes that "You can't live in the dark and feel good about yourself." The moment she weighs everything she learns and decides enough is enough almost made me cheer. Heather is that kind of character.

However, The Quarry Girls isn't only about Heather. Throughout the story, readers catch glimpses of a young woman named Beth, who's been kidnapped and knows her time is running out. With the underground layout of Pantown, Heather's search for the truth, and Beth's desperate situation, there were times that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Lourey did an excellent job of keeping me guessing-- and I didn't always guess correctly. 

If you're in the mood for a thrill ride of a novel, The Quarry Girls just may be the answer for you.                                                                                          

The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey

ASIN: B09G6DMDVR

Thomas & Mercer © 2022

eBook, 335 pages

 

Thriller, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.