Twenty-five years ago in Seaside, Washington, a charming drifter named Sam met three inseparable teenage girls at the local amusement park. Days later, one of them was found dead, her body surfacing in a flooded cranberry bog not far from where she was murdered.
Barb and Nicolette were shocked to learn that the man they all met at Wonderland was the Carnival Killer. After he’s arrested for the murders of five young women – one of whom was their best friend, Lorelei – Nicolette moved to the city to pursue her dreams of being famous. Barb stayed behind in Seaside, eventually becoming a reporter for the local paper. Their past safely behind them, they’ve both moved on with their lives.
But when the Carnival Killer recants his confession and a new body washes ashore on the eve of Wonderland’s grand reopening, the secrets that Barb and Nicolette have worked so hard to bury begin to resurface, threatening to destroy everything in their carefully constructed lives.
This is the 2nd book I’ve read from the author (Jar of Hearts was my first—and a real banger!). It’s also the 2nd book in the Wonderland interconnected series, but it absolutely works as a standalone, and I had no trouble following the story despite not reading the first book. The author wastes no time pulling you into the story with an opening excerpt from the “Criminal Confessions” documentary featuring a convicted serial killer stating that although he confessed to five murders 25 years ago, he actually committed only four. It’s a great setup that immediately had me intrigued, and from there the story never loses momentum. The story is really well structured, with just the right number of characters and POVs to keep you constantly engaged without ever feeling overwhelmed. It also has a great combination of elements—a reopened missing person case, messy female friendships, reality TV drama, long-buried small-town secrets, and a blend of big-city and small-town settings—literally never a dull moment!
Told through the shifting 3rd-person POVs of Barb Bonifacio, Cole Lennox (the Trophy Wives reality TV star), and Kylie (a woman being held captive), with Criminal Confessions documentary clips woven throughout and flashbacks to the night of Lorelei’s disappearance in 2001, I was always immersed and found it difficult to put down. Most of the narrative follows Barb and Cole, whose lives and personalities couldn’t be more different, but it’s clear that their parallel storylines will eventually come crashing together—and there were a few surprises linking them that I wasn’t expecting.
I especially enjoyed how the Trophy Wives reality show was seamlessly woven into the mystery, adding dark humor and entertaining drama to make the story even more layered. Cole’s efforts to stay relevant while navigating a toxic marriage and constant PR pressure are really entertaining—and love her or hate her, she’s far more clever than she lets people think. But Barb’s POV is the real heart of the story as she pulls out all her amateur sleuthing skills and even resorts to some shady tactics to learn more about the body that’s been found and why she believes it’s connected to Kylie’s disappearance six years earlier. Her investigation is intricate, and she navigates uncomfortable situations, including a complex relationship with a local detective, fishes for information from people around town, and questions her own morals while writing her gossip column. She’s also an unreliable narrator, and you can sense that she’s holding truths about what really happened 25 years ago. As much as I was rooting for her, I knew some dark secrets were coming—buckle your seatbelts!
The short chapters, fast-paced, immersive writing, and characters that are easy to get invested in make this binge-worthy and perfect for a weekend read or a buddy read (like I did), where you can exchange notes on everything that’s unfolding. The only reason this wasn’t quite a full five-star read for me was that one of the major twists is more intentional than jaw-dropping and wasn’t fully explained, and part of the story’s resolution needed more clarification to feel completely believable. There definitely could have been one more chapter to fully flesh things out. Even still, the author did an excellent job bringing all the threads together, and I was satisfied with how the characters’ arcs were resolved. If you enjoy multi-POV thrillers with dual timelines, serial killer elements, dark humor, and messy female friendships, this is absolutely one to add to your TBR—and one I think a lot of readers will be talking about this summer!
