Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wendy Walker‘s thriller Don’t Look for Me is a slow burn, connecting two worlds: one shrinking and claustrophobic, built around confined spaces and one built around an ever-expanding cast of characters in a small town.
The moment where these two worlds are born begins here:
The night Molly disappeared began with a storm, running out of gas, and a man in a truck offering her a ride to town. With him is a little girl who reminds her of the daughter she lost years ago. It feels like a sign. And Molly is overcome with the desire to be home, with her family—no matter how broken it is. She accepts the ride. But when the doors are locked shut, Molly begins to suspect she has made a terrible mistake.
From there, readers ping back and forth between Molly and her oldest daughter Nicole who refuses to believe her mother just walked away from the family. (In my head, I imagined that Nicole had read Janelle Brown’s Watch Me Disappear somewhere off the page!)
While I’m no aficionado on the thriller structure, I found myself reading several dozen in the last year. And, I appreciated Walker’s decision to build a world beyond just the core characters.
Of course that means there are McGuffins along the way and threads that just die (and I don’t mean that in a sloppy way), but…I like that in a story. Plots that are too clean and too tightly knit become predictable.
Don’t Look For Me was definitely an enjoyable read. (And if you’re looking for a fun Audible read, check out her novella
Hold Your Breath.
You can listen to my interview with Wendy Walker on The Downtown Writers Jam Podcast Episode 111.
