The Life I Left Behind - Colette McBeth

After being viciously attacked and left for dead, Melody Pieterson has no memory of her attack.  Her neighbor and friend, David, was arrested and convicted of her attempted murder.  Several years later, Melody has become a sliver of her former self.  Engaged to a man who enables her reclusion, Melody spends her time cooking and shopping online.  

Shortly after David is released from prison, Eve Elliot is murdered.  The circumstances of her death are strikingly similar to the details of Melody's attack, and as such, David is an immediate suspect.  However, it soon comes to light that Eve, an investigative journalist, believed that David was wrongfully convicted of Melody's attack.  She had been working to clear his name in the months prior to her own death.

When Melody comes across a copy of Eve's investigative file, she must face the fact that her attacker - and Eve's murdererer - is still out there.

This story is told by three women: Melody, who seeks to reclaim her former self; Eve, who lingers after death, silently urging Melody along; and Victoria Rutter, the detective charged with finding the killer and ultimately setting both women free.

McBeth skillfully weaves together the lives of these women with multi-layers and themes, including friendship, betrayal, loss, self-doubt, and perserverance.  And of course, there's the Bad Guy, who hides himself well amongst the pages.

I was particularly haunted by Eve, though she isn't your average ghost.  She's like your best girlfriend, the one who's braver and more fun than you.  She's the character who pulls the story together and leaves me wishing she could come back to tell another one.

I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from the publisher, St. Martin's Press.  The book will be released on February 24, 2015.

Still Missing - Chevy Stevens

This book has a lot of reviews floating around online (close to 1400 on Amazon). Chevy Stevens is a Canadian author of several mystery/suspense novels.  My friend Erin, who blogs at The PickleBee, got her hands on an advanced copy of Stevens' "Those Girls" (to be released in July of 2015) and declared solemnly, "men are horrible creatures".  Indeed - though in "Still Missing", it turns out that men aren't the only horrible  creatures.

Thirty-something realtor Annie O'Sullivan is abducted by "The Freak", while hosting a open house for a property she is trying to sell.  The Freak keeps her captive in a remote cabin in the woods, where he rapes and tortures her for the first horrifying half of the book.

Annie eventually finds an opportunity to escape, and in the second half of the book we follow her attempt to build a new life, as nothing is the same when she comes home.  Some twists and turns are revealed as Annie works with her psychiatrist and the investigators.

Chevy Stevens revealed that the idea for "Still Missing" came to her while she herself was working as a realtor and hosting an open house.  She began to wonder what would happen to her if she didn't make it back home, and thus, "Still Missing" was born.

Still Missing is dark and at times quite violent.  Stevens has created a true "Bad Guy" in "The Freak".   Though she's a fictional character, Annie's resiliency reminded me of real life survivors Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Amanda Berry.

An intensely powerful book.