I’ve been loving Charlie Donlea lately and this book is no exception. I would definitely class this one as a domestic thriller. Very enjoyable and quick listen

This was different than anything I have read. Using DNA banks to solve old cold cases. I liked Sloan and I and felt for her since she finds out so much after submitting her DNA to an ancestry site. There was some of repetitiveness and I could guess a few things but overall I really enjoyed this book.

HOLY MOLY now THAT was a good book!
A missing baby found through genetic genealogy that is also linked to multiple murders???? Yes please!
The writing was fantastic and I felt like I was completely swept up in this mystery/ thriller and listened to the majority of the book in one sitting, I just couldn’t stop! I now need to read everything else this author puts out and anything that’s come before it!
10\10 for the narrator

As part of a research project, Sloan submits her DNA to an online genealogy site to better understand how these websites are a gold mine of information. She's hesitant at first, because she was adopted and had never seeked her biological parents, but she decides to do it anyway and find out that she was part of a big unsolved case where she and both her biological parents disappeared in 1995. As part of her research for what happened to her biological family, she meets Eric, the sheriff of Cedar Creek, who is eager to help her because he is convinced that finding out what happened to Sloan decades ago will also help him find out what happened to his father, who died under suspicious circumstances soon after he started investigating the case Sloan's disappearance.
This is a mystery thriller, and the first one I read by this author after hearing many fantastic things about their other books, so I was excited to read this one. I have read many amazing reviews (the ratings speak for themselves), but it fell a bit flat for me. It was not as compelling and surprising as I had hoped it would be. It was predicatable and repetitive at times. Also, I would be curious to know how many times the name Margolis was repeated in this book... It felt a bit overdone. The narrator of the audio book did a stellar job.
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I wanted to like this more than I did, but the plot holes took me out. The writer is clearly talented, so it’s a good read, but it may have benefited from another pass of developmental edits.

Premise - Dr. Sloan Hastings is training to become a forensic pathologist, so when she’s asked to submit DNA to a genealogy site as part of an assignment, she does it despite hesitations. She expects some discomfort when she receives the result, since she was adopted as a baby, but what she learns instead reopens a decades-long cold case.

It turns out Sloane is not only part of an incredibly powerful (and decidedly less ethical) family, but she went missing, along with her parents, when she was just a baby. She reconnects with the Margolies family, her relations, while participating in a criminal investigation.

Donlea is a strong writer and can certainly develop and maintain characters well. Unfortunately, a few plot holes kept this one from feeling truly satisfying to me.

First, Margot is sooooo over the top stupid I’m counting it as a plot hole. How do you get bought off by someone who’s clearly a criminal (she realizes she is, but he’s the one who contracted her - aka a bigger criminal!) and have them check up on you for yours (threatening no matter if it comes with cash or not) and then after you betray his confidence, do the ONE THING he asked you not to do, you call him to let him know that hey, I’m a rat, here’s my current location, please swing by?! There is no way anyone with two functioning brain cells to rub together would do that, so: plot hole.

Second, how was the camera not taken as evidence? At that time the film would have been discovered, developed, case closed.

Third, as the parent of a toddler, a two year old cannot take clear photos of a crime scene. All the photos my kid takes are either just a blur of colors (and this with the stabilizing tech of 21st century smartphone cameras, which wasn’t a thing in 90s film cameras) or they’re straight up the nose. It’s just not realistic that a two year old would accidentally take useful, incriminating photos. That happened because the plot required it, not because it fit the story/situation.

Despite the plot holes, Donlea is a strong enough writer that I’d read more from him. This felt like a case of underediting, but I imagine there are some other fantastic books from this author.

Thanks, NetGalley and Kensington, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.