I love that Emiko Jean, author of two young adult romance novels that revolve around a young girl who suddenly finds out she’s a princess, changed course completely and wrote The Return of Ellie Black, an adult thriller. And you know what? It’s really good—better than the young adult novels, in my opinion.

Be warned: This story is dark, and for those with kids it might be a tough read.

Our story centers around missing girls and those affected by their disappearances. First is our detective, Chelsey Calhoun. Her sister went missing twenty years before and was never found. It’s her detective origin story: She searches for other lost girls so that other families don’t have to go through what her family did. She’s head detective on the Ellie Black case. Ellie vanished without a trace two years before, but now was found stumbling out of the woods by some hikers. The thing is, Chelsey senses that something isn’t quite right.

For a first foray into thriller writing, I thought the characters were well-developed and the plot complex. I definitely didn’t guess any of the twists, though in retrospect I should have gotten one of them. This is a bit of a slow burn for the first half, but pretty propulsive through the second half. (I read the last 50% in a day.) I do think that the first-person POV sections where Ellie describes the horrors of her confinement to be the most effective in keeping me reading. While dark, they provided the impetus to keep reading because I needed to know that Ellie and the others would be ok.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Available now.

Ellie Black returns after being missing. She is in bad shape and the detective, Chelsey, has personal affinity with the case as her own sister went missing and was believed dead. There are some far out twists to this mystery. Socioeconomic status is examined through the lens of female victims missing. Additionally, abusive fathers are showcased, those who are controlling and domineering. The story is told in real time alternating with the victim's recollection. A lot packed into the story makes it somewhat erratic in delivery but satisfying at the end.

copy provided by the publisher and Netgalley

This gripping thriller deserves a perfect 5-star rating! I was captivated from beginning to end, unable to put it down. Detective Chelsey Calhoun is determined to unravel the mystery behind the kidnapping and subsequent reappearance of Ellie Black. However, the haunting memory of her own sister's tragic murder years ago adds another layer of complexity to her pursuit. Prepare yourself for a thrilling rollercoaster ride with twists and turns, culminating in a completely unforeseen conclusion. Without a doubt, this is a must-add to your "To Be Read" list!

Thank you to Net Galley and Simon Schuster for giving me an advanced copy to read and review.

First I’d like to thank the author and publisher for the e-arc I received from NetGalley, all opinions are my own. I am a huge mystery and thriller reader and this one sounded really good but maybe I’ve read too many of them to be wowed now.

I’m going to be an outlier with this book. I’ve seen lots of rave reviews for it everywhere but sadly my opinion differs greatly. Flat, stereotypical characters, cliche predictable story. The author never describes her characters. Maybe I’ve read too much Stephen King but the only description she gave for her main character is that she’s “very Japanese in appearance.” She never described Chelsey’s husband’s appearance when we first met him. I went back to read that section again thinking I’d missed something like height, hair color, eye color…nope. I am my own casting director when I read and Ms Jean gave me nothing with most of the characters in this book. I know she’s written several young adult books and this definitely felt young adult to me. And from the first mention of her sister I made a guess and was correct.

I am sure most people will love this book, all of the many blurbs on the cover are hugely positive. I’d describe it as a summer beach read for sure. It just sadly wasn’t for me.

"𝘔𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘌𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐'𝘮 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨."

Elizabeth "Ellie" Black has been found alive in the woods after being missing for two years. Detective Chelsey Calhoun is assigned the case but unfortunately Ellie isn't willing to help much with the investigation, even though it seems she knows a lot more than she's willing to share. The investigation and Ellie's ordeal in captivity and time after being brought home are told via dual perspective.
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I really loved this one at the beginning. It was fast-paced and one of those books that I didn't mind be tired in the morning for because I stayed up too late reading. The plot is unique from other 'missing girl' thrillers I've read and both main characters were interesting. Unfortunately the plot went off the rails a bit toward the end. The twists just kept on twisting, and for me that's not always a good thing. But overall it was a thrilling page-turner that I think many will love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean is about the return of kidnapped teenager Ellie Black after being gone for two years. Once Ellie is back with her family she doesn’t want to share details about her time away which makes Detective Chelsey Calhoun suspicious and pushes to learn more about the circumstances of Ellie’s abduction and return.

Mystery/detective stories are my favorite genre so this was definitely right up my alley. I enjoyed the slightly different take on the typical abduction/kidnapping story. There were also several twists that I didn’t see coming.

This story starts off with Detective Chelsea Calhoun learning that Ellie Black has returned after being missing for two years. Calhoun is determined to learn where Ellie has been and what happened during that time.

I found this to be a compelling story that I read in just a couple sittings. I have some mixed feelings and don’t think it is one I would reread or press into the hands of friends but I’m glad I read it and stuck with it to see how it ended.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

Ellie Black has been found after being gone for 2 years. She is not the same and everybody is worried. Chelsea is the detective in charge of the case and she is a bulldog to solve the case. She can get no answers and keeps trying . I found the plot very good andwas very riveting., I recommend this book for all thriller readers.

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean is a captivating and compelling suspense-filled novel. Ellie Black disappeared after leaving a party. No sightings for two years, then she is discovered by hikers in a bloody sweatshirt, malnourished and terrified. Chelsey Calhoun, a Detective in the Family Services department is assigned Ellie's case. Chelsey lost her sister Lydia to violence fifteen years earlier, and that loss impacted her career choice and all of her relationships. The Return of Ellie Black provides insights into what it.would be like to be held captive and then try to adjust to day to day life after. It also gives insights into how loss can have long term ramifications in one's life as well as the dedication and single focus a police officer brings to each case. It is a very readable and satisfying novel. Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Publishing and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book. 3.5 stars.

I have to be honest that I was initially a little hesitant to pick up The Return of Ellie Black, knowing that the author Emiko Jean has previously published YA and contemporary romance. Would she really be able to switch gears yet again and pull off an engaging literary thriller? I’m so happy to report that not only did she pull it off, but she totally stuck the landing in delivering a propulsive page turner that is surely going to have mass appeal! I’m admittedly a little picky when it comes to “thrillers” that I enjoy - nothing too gorey or supernatural, a smart story that’s original yet not too complex to be overly confusing, and a plot-line that is at least somewhat within the realm of possibility - and Jean hits all those marks and more with Ellie Black’s story.

The story follows Chelsey, a young woman following in her father’s footsteps in becoming part of the PD force and who won’t ever forget her first case as a detective that investigated the disappearance of teenager Ellie Black. Losing her own sister as a teenager around the same age only gives more reason for Chelsey to be completely invested in Ellie’s case. Now that Ellie has suddenly reappeared two years later, Chelsey is more motivated than ever to get to the bottom of Ellie’s time missing and to determine whether connections exist to additional cases of missing girls around the same time, and perhaps even to her own sister’s case 15 years before.

I was completely drawn in from beginning to end, and the prose had that “unputdownable” quality that kept me longing to know how it was all going to come together. There were a couple perfectly plotted twists that made me gasp, the pacing was excellent, and I was thoroughly entertained the whole way through. I particularly enjoyed how the author took the story above and beyond a typical “popcorn thriller” by adding depth with themes like past trauma, sexism, grief and loss, and even adoption. If anything, I felt like there might have been some room to pull back on the heavy-handedness of some of these themes or perhaps to streamline a little more to focus on the ones that truly added to the story versus those tossed in just for more representation. And on the topic of heavy themes like trauma, sensitive readers absolutely need to check trigger warnings, as there were certainly parts that were incredibly disturbing and hard to imagine.

I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to stretch my bookish comfort zone a little further into this genre. I can see this one being quite the crowd-pleaser this summer! Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I have read a LOT of thrillers and mysteries in my day, but this has got to be one of the most well-written ones I’ve come across. It’s also definitely one of the more disturbing books I’ve read, and that vibe stayed with me after each reading session I had.

The Return of Ellie Black, by Emiko Jean, is a novel about a 17-year-old girl who returns after being missing for two years. She isn’t super forthcoming about what she’s endured or who took her. Detective Chelsey Calhoun must investigate the truth of what happened to Ellie (and what other cases might be attached to her disappearance). Chelsey’s drive stems from her own sister’s disappearance, which helps to create an intriguing theme of male rage and female endangerment throughout the story.

There were a lot of elements of this book that were intense and very dark. But that feeling of unease was so appropriate to Ellie’s case. I especially appreciated that Jean allows us into Ellie’s world while she was away. It helped to fully flesh out the story. The best part of this book is that there were several surprises that I didn’t see coming (especially the final major reveals), and one twist completely blew my mind.

I’m immediately signing up for Jean’s fan club, and will read anything she puts out next!

This was pretty good. I really had no expectations going in, and I was surprised how well-written and well-thought-out it was. The use of different points-of-view was effective, Ellie's POV especially. You could feel the pain and grime in her existence. Detective Chelsey is a similarly-damaged soul, with her own crosses to bear. The author skillfully wove disparate stories together -- I'm surprised it's a first novel.

Recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being given freely.

I received a complimentary copy of this book "The Return of Ellie Black" and all opinions expressed are my own. I am giving this 2 stars which is an okay book. I didn't really hate it but really about halfway through it fell short. I kept reading wondering how it would end and I was disappointed in the ending. It seemed wrong. The whole end just brought everything down for me.

What a great book. I was immediately drawn in to this missing person story and after a little bit knew it was going to be so much more.
There was mystery, suspense and overall a great pace. Detective Chelsey Calhoun was a great character and enjoyed how her personal experience with her sisters disappearance showed strength and determination to help others.

Hard-hitting and suspenseful to the core!

Thanks NetGalley, Simon and Schuster for the ARC! I am so glad I got to read this brilliant book.

I highly recommend you dive in blind into this. The title in itself is quite revealing!

I have read and loved #MikaInRealLife by Emiko Jean and have a couple of her YA books on my TBR. But I am truly blown away by how well she has written a mystery thriller this time. She is so versatile and can write across several genres. Kudos 👏

Everything is simply flawless in execution, right from the first page. The characters of Ellie and Detective Calhoun are so very well drawn, explored in depth and realistic. The smart plot construction is water-tight and the layered storyline development is what sets this thriller apart. The setting is perfection too – an isolated coastal town, with a forest, unpredictable sea and weather.

As the book progresses, there were many times I wanted to shake Ellie and give her a piece of my mind. Only when the mystery thickens and the suspense gets unbearably suffocating, do the impossible circumstances behind her behavior get revealed.

The author deals with heavy subject matter here – emotional and physical abuse endured by victims of kidnap, the unimaginable trauma and the sheer lengths humans can go to for survival. At times things were so disturbing, causing our stomachs to roil, as we seethed with rage and cried tears of anguish.

A galore of curveballs come our way towards the end and I can guarantee it’s highly unlikely to guess the cleverly crafted twists, the underlying complex threads and the seamless interlinking of the lives of the main protagonists.

I can only hope Jean writes more such masterfully thought out thrillers!

Thriller lovers, run! Don't walk.

Reader, how I gasped! I go through a lot of mystery novels and thrillers, so very few plot twists truly surprise me anymore. The Return Of Ellie Black, however, had me almost completely wrong-footed throughout. I can hardly believe that this is Emiko Jean’s debut thriller. It’s so perfectly plotted and seeded, and I fell for every single red herring she wrote into her story. What a terrific way to kick off the thriller-writing aspect of an already solid fiction-writing career!

Which, of course, leads me to fear accidentally giving away any spoilers while discussing this absolute page-turner of a novel. What I can safely say is that our heroine Chelsey Calhoun became a cop to follow in her police chief father’s footsteps. She joined the police force of her Coldwell, Washington hometown and worked her way up to the position of detective in its Family Services department. So she’s the investigator to call when 19 year-old Ellie Black, missing for the past two years, suddenly emerges from the Capitol State Forest. Chelsey had originally caught the missing persons case back when Ellie first disappeared. Ellie’s parents, Kat and Jimmy, had done everything they could to help Chelsey bring Ellie home to them, including volunteering as much information about their daughter as possible:

QUOTE
All these details to show how special Ellie was. Proof she deserved to be searched for, to be found. There was no way Kat could know a dollar figure was attached to each case. A careful calculation multiplied by parents’ wealth, then divided by race and religion. The poorer and darker a girl, the less funds and time the department allocated to her rescue–after all, the public is a little less outraged when those types of girls go missing. Maybe Ellie’s mom could sense it–some daughters were worth more than others. This was not a viewpoint Chelsey subscribed to. But it was a reality, even if she didn’t want to believe it.
END QUOTE

Chelsey isn’t jaded, exactly, but she has grimly realistic expectations of the world around her that leave little room for optimism. While this makes her a good investigator, it doesn’t improve her less than stellar people skills, whether on the job or in her personal life. Being the adopted Japanese daughter of a very white family never helped with that either, especially when she was growing up. Her adoptive parents did their best, but it was really their birth daughter, her older sister Lydia, who made her feel safe and accepted and just a smidge less like a social outcast.

Lydia’s disappearance when they were teenagers was thus an especially crushing blow for Chelsey, even before the confirmation of Lydia’s death tore their family apart. In order to cope, their father taught Chelsey self-defense and wilderness survival skills, lessons she embraced, though not entirely without reservations:

QUOTE
It had been a relief, getting away like that, escaping to the woods with a gun. Her mom was a wreck. And the kids at school stared at her. She’d felt so alien. Lydia had been Chelsey’s home planet; without her sister, Chelsey was adrift. But often, Chelsey wondered if her father, if people in general, should spend less time protecting daughters and more time worrying about sons. The dangerous things boys do. How they might be raised differently. She’d mentioned something similar to her father once, and he’d gazed at her hard, then said even harder, <i>I don’t have any sons.</i>
END QUOTE

Now an adult, Chelsey feels duty-bound to help find and save girls who’ve vanished just like Lydia and Ellie did. At first she’s ecstatic that, unlike her own sister, Ellie has managed to come home alive. She soon suspects, however, that something isn’t quite right about the story Ellie is telling. As the days pass and the evidence mounts, Chelsey begins to believe that Ellie is keeping terrible, dangerous secrets, and that other girls are still at risk. Will Chelsey be able to get Ellie to talk about what really happened to her before anyone else gets hurt?

This was an excellent thriller that had me gasping in shock, both at the extremely clever plot twists and in sheer admiration of Ms Jean’s storytelling skill. Told from multiple viewpoints that shift back and forth in time, the layered construction of this book has been done with both exquisite delicacy and a keen eye for maximum drama. Perhaps most important, however, is the commitment to sisterhood and survival that permeates this sensitive exploration of what it means to be a victim in the 21st century, to always feel culpable in your own abuse and to have to fight to reclaim what should never have been taken from you in the first place. Despite the misgivings I had regarding some of Chelsey’s choices as a cop in the last third of the book, this was by far one of the best written and most affecting thrillers I’ve read this year so far.

Wow! Thank you so much Netgalley, Emiko Jean and Simon & Schuster for this ebook. This book was just so good one of the best detective books I've read. The way this story unfolded and how everything connected at the end was just superb. I couldn't put this down and I highly recommend!!!

Five star thriller!! I did not want to put this one down. I thought it was unique in a since as it does not remind me of any other mystery/thriller I’ve read in the past. I love the detective aspect of the book and the different POVs. There were also some twists and turns I DID NOT see coming, which is always a plus in thrillers. I would truly recommend this book to anyone. You won’t be disappointed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars. The first thriller by this author, this book is expertly paced. And hold onto your seats, because the last 50ish pages have the twists and turns coming at you faster than you'll be able to turn the page. Told mostly from the detective's perspective, you will find interspersed throughout the novel short chapters from Ellie's perspective, and they are both fascinating and horrifying.

"It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return."

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Recommended read! I could not put it down! Chelsey has lost her sister and now with children missing, she throws herself into trying to solve the mystery even at the results of almost losing her life and marriage. Lots of twists and hope. Missing girl, Ellie, wanders back and the case explodes!