The Girl In The River (Detective Ellie Reeves series Book 7) – ARC Book Review

The body lay in the river, arms outstretched. Long brown hair swirled in all directions, flowing with the current of the water. Her eyes were wide open in death, pale pink lips parted in a scream.

Detective Ellie Reeves should be enjoying the wedding of her dear friend Mia Norman. But instead of celebrating, she is frantically searching for the missing bride. Something is terribly wrong—just hours ago, Mia was blissfully happy. Why would she suddenly vanish?

Bursting through the dressing room, Ellie finds it in disarray—chairs overturned, a perfume bottle shattered. Hiding in the bathroom is Mia’s six-year-old daughter Pixie, curled in a ball and sobbing her heart out. The little girl says she was locked inside when she heard a man’s voice, and her mother crying. “I just want my mommy back,” she pleads. Ellie vows to make that happen.

Turning the venue upside down, Ellie’s blood turns to ice when she reaches the riverbank. Someone is dead in the rippling water, floating beside a white veil. Ellie holds her breath as she turns the body over. It belongs to Tori, Mia’s bridesmaid, a gunshot wound in her back. Near the murder scene, Ellie discovers a button from a man’s shirt, and her friend’s engagement ring. The race is on to find Mia—before it’s too late.

When forensics come back, the investigation takes a dark turn. DNA proves that Mia was actually Jesse Habersham, a woman who went missing five years ago. Ellie is certain that Mia was running from someone. Did her past finally catch up with her?

Facing the most complex case of her career, Ellie is in a race against time. Can she uncover the truth before her friend is brutally killed? And when the murderer comes after innocent little Pixie, will Ellie save her from the clutches of death?

This book is so unputdownable that I finished this book within two days! It was really good that will keep you up all night.

Ellie Reeves is invited to a wedding of her friend, Mia Norman. As Ellie and the other guests are waiting for Mia to walk the aisle, the bride doesn’t appear. Everyone including the bridegroom Mark gets anxious and Ellie goes to check on Mia, she finds that both the bride and the bridesmaid, Tori are missing and Mia’s daughter, Pixie is hiding in the corner. A few hours later, Tori’s dead body was found floating in the river but Mia was not found. Realizing that this was foul play, Ellie knew that Mia would never leave behind her daughter. As she embark on the investigation with Derrick, she finds that Mia used to be Jesse and was from a small town where everything is controlled by a family named Moon and Jesse was married to Kevin Moon…

I was literally hooked into the book that I cannot actually put the book down! There were OMG moments with some twists and turns and will keep you hooked till the end. I felt like I was watching some kind of an interesting action packed movie on the TV. Overall, in my opinion, this was a fast paced thriller that will keep you up all night, filled with unexpected twists and turns! Worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.