I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Wherever She Goes
by
Kelley Armstrong
psychological thriller in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on June 25, 2019 and has 304 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Broken, Personal Demon , Living with the Dead, Men of the Otherworld, Tales of the Otherworld, Frostbitten, Dates from Hell, Exit Strategy, Made to Be Broken, The Reckoning, Spell Bound, The Gathering, The Awakening, "Hidden", The Calling, Aftertaste, Kisses from Hell, The Rising, Omens, Wild Justice, Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions, Visions, Deceptions, The Masked Truth, City of the Lost, Empire of Night, Forest of Ruin, Betrayals, A Darkness Absolute, Indigo, Rituals, The Unquiet Past, This Fallen Prey, Stolen, Rough Justice, Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic, Haunted, Broken, Waking the Witch, Portents, Missing, Alone in the Wild, Watcher in the Woods, Otherworld Secrets, "The Case of the Half-Demon Spy", "Escape", Otherworld Chills, A Stranger in Town, "Bargain", Hex on the Beach, "Recruit", "Checkmate", "Framed", Cursed Luck, High Jinx, Bitten, Driven, "Forsaken", The Deepest of Secrets, "Dead Letter Days", Men of the Otherworld, The Boy Who Cried Bear
A standalone psychological thriller revolving around a recently divorced woman with too many secrets in Oxford, a small town just outside Chicago.
My Take
It’s sweet how Aubrey and Paul share custody of their daughter.
Aubrey’s personality is fascinating — it does help that Armstrong uses first person protagonist point-of-view from Bree’s perspective. She’s a loner who doesn’t understand regular society and desperately wants to fit in. One who has hidden her experience from the man she loves, but not the trauma she experienced when she was two, as her mother died.
Her thoughts about her job are a great reminder of how useful a library is to a community.
The judgmental attitude of people is exposed, and it makes me realize how much I pre-judge people as well. But the cops…jesus…makes you wonder where justice went. Ya just can’t blame Aubrey for not trusting the cops later on. As for Ingrid, I cannot believe her!! She’s the one who oughta be fired!!
Armstrong includes a number of red herrings in here, as Aubrey jumps to conclusions. She’s not the only one jumping, as Paul is re-thinking why Aubrey married him.
There’s plenty of action and sooo much frustration! Threats, spying, kidnappings, disbelief..oy…all that disbelief coming from several directions.
It’s a sweet ending and one that leaves me wondering if this will turn into a series.
The Story
Secrets can destroy your life. Now Aubrey is a divorced woman, struggling to make ends meet, seeing her daughter on weekends, dreaming of her husband.
Then a child is kidnapped and the police don’t believe her.
The Characters
Aubrey “Bree” Finch, a.k.a. Aubrey Stapleton, is newly divorced after she reveals her secrets to her now ex-husband. She’s currently working at the library. Her dad had been a career soldier suffering from PTSD.
The law-abiding Paul is a defense lawyer. He and Aubrey share custody of their three-year-old daughter, Charlotte, whose favorite toy is a stuffed rat. The chic, put-together Gayle Lansing is Paul’s new girlfriend and a fellow attorney, a partner at his firm. Libby is her daughter. Mrs Mueller is a new neighbor of Paul’s with a daughter, Becky, and a dog named Pete. Another neighbor is the eighty-year-old Mrs McDonnell.
Oxford PD
Officers Cooper and the ambitious Laila Jackson don’t believe in a kidnapped child.
Brandon is the boy who’s gone missing. Kim Mason works at a pizzeria where Francis is her boss. Kim Lyons rented a house on the outskirts of town. Thom Milano lives in South Dakota and is married to Ellie Mikhailov, Kim’s sister. Elizabeth Kenner is a concerned social worker, a former youth outreach worker.
Denis Zima is the son of Russian mobsters and he’s opening a new club, Zodiac Five, in Chicago. Hugh Orbec is Zima’s head of operations for the clubs. Lynn is Orbec’s partner. Papa and Mama Zima are total opposites but both work for the Russian mob.
Oxford Library
Ingrid is Aubrey’s disapproving supervisor. Nancy is a coworker.
Amber is a child at the playground. Bright Horizons Daycare is where Charlotte spends her days. Ruben Dubrand had been the mastermind of that little criminal ring. Seems he’s got a blackmailer’s mind as well.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a background of pastel blues and greens with the dark haired Aubrey wearing a burgundy hooded jacket and black pants racing away from us towards a playground. At the very top in black is an info blurb. The author’s name is in a paler red violet below that. Below that is the title in a dark blue in a faint three-dimensional effect in a paler blue. Just above the swingset is the information that this is a novel, in black.
The title is the questions and fears Wherever She Goes.
