Bring Her Home

Author: David Bell
Genre: Suspense
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Berkley
First Published: July 11, 2017
First Line: "Bill Price stepped into the whirling chaos of the emergency room."

Book Description from GoodReads: 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...
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Berkley Publishing for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3 stars

My Review: This is my first David Bell book and I was initially attracted to its vibrant cover and then enticed by its summary. Missing girls, secrets and potentially mistaken identities? Sounds good, right?

Bring Her Home is a well paced domestic thriller with short chapters that keep the story flowing. There are a few (obvious) red herrings and I picked out the culprit early on but there were a couple of twists that surprised me. Unfortunately, I found the plot lacked the intensity that I expect from a suspense read and it wasn't until later in the book that I felt wrapped up in the plot.

This book has a great premise but it's biggest issue was its main character, Bill. Readers spend a lot of time in Bill's head and it's not a nice place to be. He's an angry man who struggles daily to keep his volatile temper in check. Granted, he has had to deal with much loss and normally I'd be all over supporting a character like that. But any sympathy I had for him was quickly lost when he'd repeatedly and regularly lose his cool and lash out with little to no provocation. He seems to care about his daughter but his hotheadedness and his awkward, repetitive inner dialogue seemed to take centre stage to his paternal feelings. That got on my nerves and gave the book more of a movie-of-the-week, overly dramatized feel.

Overall, this was a decent read. It has its suspenseful moments, some twists and a great premise but fell a little short in its character development and dialogue. If you're looking for a lighter, summery, sittin'-by-the-pool kind of suspense read then you may want to pick this one up.