Halloween Bingo 2025
I am currently a confirmed non-dater, so I am always glad to read about dating misadventures. I'm also pretty iffy about thrillers, so although I liked the premise of this novel, I wasn't sure that it was for me. For the first 20% I was undecided. Wren has been convinced to use a dating app by her best friend. On her third date, she clicks with Adam. Hard. They immediately start to see each other everyday. They walk, they talk, they try restaurants together. One night, feeling secure in the post-coital dark, Wren confesses something from her past. The next morning, Adam says he has a question for her, but he'll ask her at dinner that evening. Except he doesn't show up. He's not responding to texts or calls. Wren goes home eventually and by the next day his dating profile and Facebook page are gone.
So that could have been the end of things. Wren assumes that her confession scared him away. Until the private investigator shows up at her door, shows her a photo of Adam, and informs her that another woman who dated him has gone missing. They go for coffee to discuss this matter and I am HOOKED.
Wren asks, “Are we all just layers of secrets and lies?” It turns out that she has a web of dark secrets, that she has carefully curated her life to hide in plain sight. Is her current situation, abandoned by a man she was learning to love, tied to the past she wants to forget? Is her Adam really the reason that three other young women have disappeared?
I remember the old, old days of dating via personal ad in the newspaper. Two friends and I wrote ads and placed them, just for a lark. One friend ended up married. I got a letter from a man who claimed to be a police officer, warning me that this was a dangerous way to meet people (and giving me his contact info). Those were the days of informing your friends when and where you were meeting someone. “If I go missing, tell the police to start digging close to this place.” Thankfully, my worst date was with a guy whose nose twitched continuously like a rabbit.
I credit the audiobook narrator for getting me through this novel. Her acting ability kept me listening. She gave Wren just the right balance of vulnerability and strength. Left to my own devices and the print version, I think I might have bailed at the halfway point.
I read this book for the Raven/Free square of my Halloween Bingo card.
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