Book Review / The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon

Bestselling author Jennifer McMahon is back with a gut-wrenching mystery about an architect whose troubled mother has been found 25 years after being kidnapped-by a killer who is still on the loose.

The summer of 1985 changed Reggie's life. Thirteen, awkward, and without a father, she finds herself mixed up with her school's outcasts-Charlie, the local detective's son, and Tara, a goth kid who has a mental hold over Reggie and harbors a dark secret. That same summer a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother Vera-an ex-model with many "boyfriends" and a thirst for gin-the most, Vera's hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there's no body and Neptune disappears.

Now a successful architect who left her hometown behind after that horrific summer, Reggie doesn't trust anyone and lives with few attachments. But when she gets a call from a homeless shelter saying that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again.

With her signature style, Jennifer McMahon portrays the dark side of adolescent friendship and introduces characters who haunt the imagination, along with a disturbing web of secrets, betrayals, and murder.

Published:     1st January 2013
Publisher:  William Morrow
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone: Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

MY REVIEW

I've read one or two of this author's books so far and I am loving each one of them and if possible they are getting better and better the more I read (no matter in what order - whether it is backlist or new). 

We follow Reggie in this story and follow her story both in the past and the present day.  In the past we follow her when she is thirteen and her mother goes missing and is presumed to have been captured by the serial killer that is going around chopping off hands, leaving them at the police station and then after a period of a few days killing his or her victim.  In the present, we see Reggie who has moved away from her homedown and is a successful architect.  Now she finds that the mother that she had thought had been killed so many years ago is alive, she goes back to her home town. 

What I loved the most about this story was the plot and how many twists and turns could possibly be in this story.  Just when I thought the story was taking me one way it changes and I was left thinking what on earth was going on and I loved it!  The best part by a long shot was the double reveal twist at the end.  I wasn't expecting it.

A truly spectactular thriller that you need to pick up!