Leave The Girls Behind is the second novel by Australian/New Zealand author, Jacqueline Bublitz. In May 1996, when Ruth-Ann Baker was seven years old, Beth Lovely, also seven and living a few strets over, was taken from a playground in her hometown of Hoben, Connecticut. Her body was found by Hoben PD’s K9 unit, buried in the woods, eleven days later. Thirty-one-year-old Hoben High School’s popular music teacher, Ethan Oswald was charged with her murder and died in prison in 2002.

Ruth-Ann’s parents took her to live in New York City, where she was often visited by Beth; Ruth-Ann stopped telling her therapists about this when they kept trying to cure her of it. The murder set her on a course to become a forensic profiler: could it help explain how to spot such a killer?

In May 2015, Ruth-Ann is working at Sweeney’s Bar when an Amber Alert hits her phone: seven-year-old Coco Wilson has been taken from her front yard in Hoben, Connecticut. It clearly can’t be Ethan, but there are so many similarities to Beth’s abduction, Ruth-Ann is itching to research it. But, after her episode five years earlier, she has promised not to get mixed up in missing girl cases.

Yet that evening, after work, there is Beth again, and soon enough, Rhea, Leila and Lori, the three girls who want Ruth-Ann to prove Ethan killed them, appear. Taking up their case, back in 2010, did not play out well: heresay from ghosts is not evidence. But Ruth-Ann’s eye for detail has them reviewing everything they know, and once again checking the “What Happened To Her” online community forum, where some new information has appeared.

Ruth manages to connect with a woman claiming to be one of Ethan’s victims, and learns things about his history that place him near enough to have murdered the three. When she posts a request for information about young women who knew Ethan Oswald around the time of the murder, discovers a bizarre links to serial killers that gives her the perfect cover for making direct inquiries. These take her to New Zealand and Norway, then back to New York City, and raise a bunch of questions.

Did Ethan have an accomplice? It begins to look like he managed to attract and charm teenaged enablers. Has someone taken over his role? Has she uncovered some sort of murder cult? Does this put her in danger? And will the police take any notice of what she has found?

Bublitz gives the reader a clever, twisty plot that explores, among other things, the hold a charismatic man can have over a needy woman, and the far-reaching effects of a child abduction. Parts of the story are told through the eyes of the seven-year-old girl who was taken and held, shackled in a locked room. There are mentions of the victim from Bublitz’s first novel, but no spoilers. Another enthralling read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Allen & Unwin.

***3.5 Stars***

Leave The Girls Behind by Jacqueline Bublitz has left me with mixed feelings. The book starts off with a compelling premise, and I was hooked for the first few chapters, thinking I had a sense of where the story was going. But a few unexpected twists took the narrative in surprising directions, leaving me somewhat disoriented. With numerous characters and complex elements that occasionally felt forced, the story sometimes struggled to stay cohesive. Despite this, the writing kept me engaged, and I was invested enough to see it through to the end. Many readers have loved this book, so it’s one you may need to try for yourself to see where you land.

Leave The Girls Behind
Jacqueline Bublitz

The acclaimed author of the “tour de force” Before You Knew My Name returns with this suspense thriller about a woman haunted by a serial killer and the ghosts he left behind.

This delivered some supernatural elements which is perfect for Spooky Season, a little murder, and some big twists.

As thought provoking as it was, it was a little jumbled. The ending felt tidy, it all came together maybe too easily.

I think if you read it with a open mind you will love it, but with Before You Knew My Name being so phenomenal, you can easily go in with higher expectations and this will always lead to disappointment.

Perhaps my expectations were too high with this book, but I don't think I'm alone in believing that the book did not deliver. The predecessor book [book:Before You Knew My Name|60321522] was SO unbelievably good!
This story makes some vague reference to the content of the other book, but focuses on Ruthie, who lives in New York, works in a bar and who is haunted by the ghosts of girls who have been abducted and killed. When another girl is taken from the same small town that Ruthie grew up in and where her best friend Beth was abducted and killed she goes on high alert and becomes determined to find out more.
I won't say too much more as it will spoil the story, but there are a lot of characters and changes in direction that don't necessarily enhance the story but distract from it. The plot is packed with potential but the telling just didn't match it.
Thank you Netgalley and Allen & Unwin for the opportunity to read this digital ARC.

Leave the Girls Behind is an intriguing, thought provoking and twisty thriller. I was pulled in by the storyline, which followed an unusual trajectory and really hooked my interest.

Rather than following the well-worn paths of serial killers or their victims, the novel explores the perspectives of those on the periphery of the crime—individuals who may be unwittingly or deliberately complicit in the events that lead to them. The characters aren’t particularly endearing, but are layered and compelling. I had some difficulty following the initial threads of the story, but as I persisted I found myself immersed, as the pieces came together to a satisfying conclusion.

Thank you Allen & Unwin for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

I loved Leave the Girls Behind. It was beautifully written. I was drawn in immediately, and I just couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting.

The characters were interesting, mysterious, and complex, especially Ruth.
The storyline was compelling, emotional, and unique.
I really enjoyed the authors previous book, Before You Knew My Name. I think Leave the Girls Behind is definitely just as good.

I can't wait to see what Jacqueline comes up with next.

I highly recommend.

5 stars from me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley, Allen & Unwin, and Jacqueline Bublitz for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved Before You Knew My Name and was excited to read Leave the Girls Behind.

This book had such an interesting premise and features Jacqueline’s beautiful writing style but felt stilted, confused and missed the mark imo. I did find myself confused by the multiple characters and connections at various points.

Will I read the authors next book- absolutely, and I feel like this book could have been incredible.

I loved the author's standout debut, Before You Knew My Name, so I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, Leave the Girls Behind didn't quite hit the mark for me.

The concept is clever, the writing beautiful, and the characters are well rounded and credible, but I got a little lost in the many characters and (what I felt was) an over complicated storyline. The last quarter of the book, however, had me very invested and I couldn't put it down until it was done!

I didn't love it, but I did like it, and I do suggest you give this one a read!

Thank you to Allen & Unwin and NetGalley for an eARC of Leave the Girls Behind to read and review. Expected publication date is 29/10/24

I absolutely loved the author’s first book "Before You Knew My Name" but I struggled quite a bit with this one. It centres around a child, seven year old Beth Lovely, who was abducted and killed in Hoben, Conneticut. Music teacher Ethan Oswald, was later arrested and convicted. Beth’s best friend Ruth Ann struggles with her death and when she is grown up becomes obsessed with the idea that Ethan took and killed other girls before Beth.

Now 26, living and working in New York, she learns of another child, Coco Wilson, currently missing from Hoben and becomes convinced that this is somehow connected to Beth’s disappearance even though Ethan Oswald is now dead. Her suspicions take her across the world, posing as a podcaster chasing a story, looking for links to prove her theory. What happens next all seems a bit implausible as Ruth leaps from one supposition to the next and tries to manipulate people she suspects might have been involved. Also, too many coincidences were required to fall into place for Ruth’s theories to make any sense.

It also didn’t help that the characters are difficult to connect to. The secondary characters are not well developed and I struggled to remember their connections to Ethan and each other. Ruth Ann is suffering from trauma (for a good reason we discover), and at times this makes her seem more than a little unhinged. Although the writing is very good and the premise interesting, I sometimes found the plot a little too tangled to keep track of and the resolution disappointing, which is a shame because I feel there is a good story in there and I wanted to like it more than I did. However, I note many others loved this novel and if you’re looking for something different in the crime genre to read, do give it a try.

I really enjoyed this author's debut novel so I was so excited to read this one.
Unfortunately, it didn't quite hit the mark for me. I loved the premise of this one but when reading it was hard to be fully attentive because it just wasn't pulling me in.
I didn't really connect with the main character and just felt like the story dragged and was hard to get into.
There was some good twists and it did keep me guessing which is something that I love.

This book was very interesting, strange and also a tad unsettling at the start. I don’t really enjoy reading about young children being abducted, it was a little disturbing but I was intrigued about where this story was going to go, so I stuck by it.

Ruth is obsessed with her childhood friend’s death back when they were 7 years old. Her killer is also dead, but 19 years later another girl goes missing. Ruth becomes fixated on this and starts to question if he was working with someone else all those years ago? or is this a copy cat killer? She goes to extreme lengths to look into this.

Ruth is quite a good detective and tries to find connections with people who knew her friend’s killer in the past. I was curious to find out more about this, so that held my interest in the book.

There’s also a supernatural part to the story which I wasn’t expecting, but I won’t go into that and will leave that to you to find out more about. Overall, it was a very different kind of book to what I’d normally read and it had some interesting elements to the story.

Thank you so much @allenandunwin and @netgalley for sending me this copy in exchange for an honest review.

New Zealand born author Jacqueline Bublitz’s second crime fiction mystery is Leave the Girls Behind (2024). Ruth-Anne Baker is working in a bar in 2015 in New York, when a young girl goes missing in Hobson, Connecticut. Ruth suspects a link to an earlier disappearance of a young girl killed in Hobson in 1996 and that of her own rescue, from the man she believes was a serial killer. Ruth decides to investigate, discovering four women with connections to the now-dead killer. As Ruth travels to New Zealand and then Oslo, she visits each of the women in turn to determine if there was an accomplice. The narrative contains four sections, each focused on one of the women, as Ruth tries to determine if they had any knowledge of the killer’s plans. A mystery thriller about a citizen detective whose own complicated past makes her determined to prove her case. A fascinating read with a strong psychological bent and paranormal element, that is a four and a half star rating, with an intriguing reference to Hecate, an ancient Greek goddess. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without any inducement. With thanks to Allen & Unwin and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes.

I really wanted to love this but felt like it was hard to follow at times and understand what was happening. The plot felt flat and I didn't connect to the characters.

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND is the latest offering from Jacqueline Bublitz, after the absolutely fascinating BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME. This is a different beast entirely, although it's again set in the USA, featuring a strong, unusual central female character.

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, bartender and amateur detective who lives in an apartment owned by a much loved uncle, with only her beloved dog for company. She's a tormented, complicated character, not at all helped by her obsession with the murder of her best friend, nineteen years earlier, by a suspected serial killer, Ethan Oswald. Oswald's dead now, but when a young girl goes missing from the same home town, there's some evidence to suggest that he might not have been operating alone. 

There wasn't a lot required to get Baker investigating this possibility in her own right. She's regularly visited by the spirit / ghost of her long dead best friend, and there are then three other women involved as Baker becomes more and more invested in discovering the truth.

Whether or not the reader can also become invested in the investigation is even more tricky as the complications pile up and reader's may find themselves with some note taking involved in keeping everything straight and understandable. None of that is helped by a range of coincidences that may induce the same hefty amounts of eye-rolling that this reader struggled to surpress at times.

Bublitz has an interesting way with her central characters. She's happy for them to be imperfect, flawed by past events in their own lives, frequently unreliable, always questionable, just flat out flaky in other words. Baker carries all of those elements with her, and then some. Whilst her story is beautifully evoked, and Bublitz can write lyrically and atmospherically at times, a reader who is happy to go with some of the supernatural elements, in a decidedly non-supernatural setting, and with the conclusions that are leapt to, and the complications and coincidences, will undoubtedly just get this novel. There's also another underlying message here about the outcomes of trauma and how to survive and thrive when trust becomes a lifelong issue, but you might find yourself losing that thread occasionally and maybe that's the point.

This reader struggled with LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND. On the one hand, loved the writing style, loved the invocation of character and even some of the sense of place. Wasn't enamoured of the plot, couldn't cope with the coincidences, felt like the threads kept snapping everytime I managed to lay a hand on one. Won't be at all surprised if this isn't a novel that utterly and completely divides opinion and maybe that's the point.

I was quite looking forward to this one but have to say I struggle with it and found it quite hard to read. Ruth (our main character) is obsessed with true crime and many years ago had lost a friend to a murder and now with a new murder and she is on the hunt to see what is happening.

But for me the story didn't flow and at times became rather complicated. I at times didn't find it believable but at times I thought the story was good but could have been better. I can't say it was a favourite of mine as it just didn't read smoothly and took too much effort to keep the story straight in my mind.

Thank you NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thought-provoking, but a little too jumbled to hit as hard as it could have.

Another novel that focuses on the women behind crime, this book follows Ruth as she investigates the three women that may be connected to the murder of her friend 19 years ago.

I did enjoy the angle and I really love the way this author considers the impact of murder from multiple angles. There's some interesting insight here into the women vs women mentality that is so common in today's society, and I really enjoyed turning those thoughts over. Ruth is not a perfect heroine - her thoughts are flawed and coloured by her own traumas, and so it was interesting to try and read between the lines of what she was saying and doing.

That said, involving the other women did make this feel rather complicated, and it was hard to keep the stories straight. There seemed to be a lot of questionable coincidence, and I lost the thread a few times.

The writing was wonderful and lyrical, with some beautiful phrases and a powerful atmosphere, particularly where we met Rose. I did enjoy losing myself in the language, even if the story felt a little stilted.

I felt the idea was really clever and the themes important, but I think ultimately it was too much to keep straight. It was beautifully written for what it was, but I feel the important parts got lost a little bit in an over-complicated story.

Not quite the follow-up I'd hoped for after the standout debut, Before You Knew My Name, but still some solid ideas here with beautiful writing. Worth a shot for the crime fans looking for something a little deeper.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC

I do not like leaving negative reviews, but I have to say I really struggled with this one. The story is based around a girl named Ruth Barker, who has a true crime addiction. Ruth currently works in a bar but nineteen years ago she lost her best friend who was murdered by the infamous Ethan Oswald. Now there is another death, and it is looking highly likely that Ethan, although he has since passed away himself, may have had an accomplice when he was committing murder. Ruth then trails three other women that she believes can prove this theory to be correct

I found the plot rather slow and underwhelming and did not feel the characters had any great depth to them which in turn did not add anything to the story. All in all, it was difficult to stay engaged throughout the book and when my mind starts to wander like this I struggle. I did finish the book, but I cannot say that t will be one I remember

Thank you to Netgalley the author and publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions are my own. 2 stars rounded up to 2.5.