Bring Her Home by David Bell Book Review

Bring Her Home By David Bell Book Review

The lowdown from Goodreads

Publication Date July 11, 2017

In the breathtaking new thriller from David Bell, bestselling author of Since She Went Away and Somebody I Used to Know, the fate of two missing teenage girls becomes a father’s worst nightmare….

Just a year and a half after the tragic death of his wife, Bill Price’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Summer, and her best friend, Haley, disappear. Days later, the girls are found in a city park. Haley is dead at the scene, while Summer is left beaten beyond recognition and clinging to life.

As Bill holds vigil over Summer’s bandaged body, the only sound the unconscious girl can make is one cryptic and chilling word: No. And the more time Bill spends with Summer, the more he wonders what happened to her. Or if the injured girl in the hospital bed is really his daughter at all.

When troubling new questions about Summer’s life surface, Bill is not prepared for the aftershocks. He’ll soon discover that both the living and the dead have secrets. And that searching for the truth will tear open old wounds that pierce straight to the heart of his family…

Bring Her Home By David Bell Book Review

This is any parent’s nightmare! Your teenage daughter and her best friend are missing. Last seen leaving one home en route for another. Then, nothing. Gone!

Summer and Haley are best friends, popular and pretty. On the surface, they have a normal teenage girls life.  But are things at school and with their friends as normal as it seems? As the mother of a teenage daughter, this story was horrifying but also this book made me think; do you know your children as well as you think? Do you Really know their friends and how they spend their time? Whether it be online or in the hallway of the high school….What do parents Really know? We always want to believe the best in people, sometimes overshadowing what’s really there.  Who can we trust?

Bill and Summer are just trying to find their footing in the year after Bill’s wife and Summer’s mother, Julia, was tragically killed inside the home.  A freak accident.  Summer and Haley are close and doing normal teenage things; gossip, date, and push their parent’s buttons.  But for Bill, playing now the mother and fatherly roles has proven more difficult than he expected.  Summer has been through so much, the loss of her mother and being a teenager is a lot to handle.  Naturally, she is a bit rebellious and pushes her father’s patients to the brink.  Then the unthinkable happens, Summer and Haley are missing!

THE VERDICT

I was Really Into this book, even if the theme of missing teens is utterly terrifying. Nothing is what it seems in this suspenseful and twisty story, you haven’t figured out the mystery even when you’re sure you have!  David Bell is clearly a talented author and has a keen eye for depth when writing his characters.  This book kept me guessing until the very end!  Great summer thriller.

Special thanks to David Bell,  Berkley Books & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review. 

Let’s connect over books! Check out all of our review on Goodreads.

Really Into This a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

About the Author: David Bell

David Bell is the author of seven novels from Berkley/Penguin, including BRING HER HOME, SINCE SHE WENT AWAY, SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW, THE FORGOTTEN GIRL, NEVER COME BACK, THE HIDING PLACE, and CEMETERY GIRL. His work has been translated into numerous foreign languages, and in 2013, he won the prestigious Prix Polar International de Cognac for best crime novel by an international author. He is an associate professor of English at Western Kentucky University where he directs the MFA program in creative writing. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he spends his free time rooting for the Reds and Bengals, watching movies, and walking in the cemetery near his house. He lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with his wife, writer Molly McCaffrey.