Audrey is a search and rescue expert who's never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. When Audrey comes across evidence that a recent teenage runaway may actually have been kidnapped from land belonging to the town's most prominent family, she's going to have to dig through decades of secrets to find out what happened to the runaway... and all the girls before.
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The Girls Before alternates chapters between a girl trapped in the dark and Audrey, the search and rescue expert who's looking for a missing girl that no one else believes is missing.
Audrey is one of those angsty characters I've grown bored of-- convinced that her way is the right way and willing to needlessly put her life at risk to prove her point. To make matters worse, there's also the de rigueur prominent (and prominently twisted) family in town.
There are twists and surprises, but Audrey never thrilled me. The story dragged. If it had been tightened up, I may have cared how it all turned out; but it wasn't, and I didn't. I must make a note to myself to avoid books with angst-riddled characters. After The Girls Before, I find myself in dire need of a straightforward murder and a determined cop.
The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall
eISBN: 9781250343093
Flatiron Books © 2026
eBook, 307 pages
Standalone Thriller
Rating: D
Source: Purchased from Amazon.
I get very tired of angst, too, Cathy. I know we all have our emotional and mental burdens, but... And it just doesn't sound like the sort of story that would draw me in (I have to say I get tired of missing girls in my crime fiction...). I'm sorry this one didn't do it for you, but I agree with your view of what works and doesn't.
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