Contemporary Authors

Nina Laurin is a bilingual (English/French) author of suspenseful stories for both adults and young adults. She got her BA in Creative Writing at Concordia University, in her hometown of Montreal, Canada. Her first novel is GIRL LAST SEEN, available now from Grand Central Publishing.

To contact Nina, email thrillerina at gmail dot com.

Nina is represented by Rachel Ekstrom of Irene Goodman Literary Agency.

Nina Laurin studied Creative Writing at Concordia University, in Montreal where she currently lives. She has published speculative short stories in various e-zines and anthologies over the years and her narrative nonfiction piece, “On Happiness” is soon to be published in the local literary journal Cosmonauts Avenue. She blogs about books and writing on her own site, thrillerina.wordpress.com.

When I was eleven years old, my parents decided to up and move to another country.

Quebec was not the original destination they had in mind; in fact, I didn’t know such a place even existed until my parents told me we were moving there.

After that, I dug through a stack of old life and style magazines—the closest equivalent that post-Soviet Russia had, with never-before-seen gaunt models flaunting thousand-dollar dresses my family would never be able to afford, interspersed with spreads of New Russians’ luxurious decorated houses and exotic travel destinations.

In one of the issues, I found the article on Montreal. There was something about Old Europe in the heart of North America, with pictures of skyscrapers next to those of terraces covered in flowers, horse-drawn carriages, and a man dancing on stilts on the cobblestones of the Old Port. It still meant absolutely nothing to me, but I cut out the pictures and stuck them on the wall above my bed with some play-doh.

The reality of Montreal turned out to be different. It was less flower-strewn terraces and champagne and more low-ceilinged apartment in the not-so-good part of town, in a building that perpetually smelled like cooking grease. On my way to and from school, I’d get catcalled and harassed by men sitting on low-hanging balconies of similar slums.

It was the best life I ever had up to that point.

Always an avid reader (and fledgling writer), I was only allowed to bring with me my absolute favorite books, because most of them would simply not fit into the luggage. So I brought my favorite Russian children’s books, my notebooks, and my diaries. But I would soon find out that they were as out of place here as I was.

In school, they first send immigrant children to a special class where they only learn French. (Language laws in Quebec only allow immigrants to attend a French-language school.) Naturally, we ‘welcome class’ students were not so welcome: we were the scapegoat for mockery and abuse by the locals, who all seemed to unattainably cool to me they might as well have been from another planet, not another country. Their clothes, their hair, the effortless way they spoke French just so, as opposed to my awkward complete sentences that never sounded right—I understood right away it would take more than eight months of intensive language classes to make me fit in.

French books, I realized, were also not my friend. I remember a YA novel we were assigned in seventh grade, when I started regular school: there was a girl who was supposedly thirteen, like myself. But her family was different from mine: her parents had no problem with her wearing makeup and dating. And she had a boyfriend, something I could only daydream about. Barely being able to understand Quebec-French colloquialisms was bad enough; this was a character I could not relate to on any level, and her problems seemed at best trivial to me.

That’s when a friend gave me a fantasy novel in English. Language difficulties aside, being able to escape from the real world altogether was nice. Finally having found something I liked, I did what any young teenager would do: I tried to write my own.

Writing, at first, was a frustrating experience. The words of my native language already started to slip away from me—I was making mistakes where I never would have a year ago, and my sentences were clunky. But French and English were not yet within my grasp: everything I wrote felt didactic and flat. I didn’t have a feel of the language or the text I was writing. I abandoned it for a few more years.

Gradually, I got back to reading, in English and French this time. I got the hang of the culture, so the settings and characters didn’t seem so alien anymore. I got back to writing, too—within a year, I beat my native-French-speaker classmates at both the spelling test and the essay competition. After that, I never left books out of my life again.

I wish I could say there was some great moral to the story, that it made me stronger and better, that it paid off in the end, that the bullies saw the error of their ways, but there really isn’t. It would be another decade before I tried to write for publication, and that’s a separate saga all on its own. And sure, to this day my beta readers, critique partners, and (heaven forbid) editor sometimes point out non-English idioms in my manuscripts (it’s never not mortifying, thanks for asking). But what I did get out of it is a really good memory and an extensive vocabulary. And I found a lot of good books along the way.

Nina Laurin’s enthralling debut, Girl Last Seen, comes out today and I had the excellent luck of being able to read an advance copy. Most of the time, my Book Addiction posts have a focus on amazing historical fiction, but I’m diversifying this time because I’ve been reading a lot of suspense lately and Girl Last Seen is utterly compelling and highly recommended.

Laine, the novel’s vulnerable but determined protagonist, struggles to cope with her past abduction, a crime that has never been solved. Now, thirteen years later, a second girl goes missing, one who could be the image of Lainey at age ten. Dark and full of serpentine twists, Girl Last Seen is an addictive books that makes for such captivating reading that you might find yourself still turning pages when you should be cooking dinner, or looking up from the book and realizing that it’s suddenly past midnight. (Full disclosure: both of those things happened to me).

Nina has kindly agreed to an interview on my blog, making this an extra special post. Welcome, Nina!

What was your inspiration for Girl Last Seen?

I was researching some true crime for another story and fell down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. I came across a particularly chilling story of a true crime that just stuck with me. I may have read too much about it, because I had actual nightmares for a couple of days. I can’t give you the link, because it would in itself be a spoiler. But some time later, the main character of GIRL LAST SEEN just appeared in my mind, and I simply had to tell her story.

Did you face any unexpected challenges or pleasant surprises while working on the novel?

It was the manuscript that made me realize psychological suspense was my genre! At the end of 2014, I was facing a crossroads that no writer wants to face. I had broken up with my previous agent that summer and was disheartened by constant rejection, which made me question whether I was writing the right books—and whether I was really meant to be a writer at all. I don’t know what exactly possessed me, but I took out the first version of what would become GIRL LAST SEEN and started to overhaul it. To my surprise, it took off! And then I was writing the scene at the abandoned house where Laine is being stalked in the dark, and after a very long writing slump, I felt the energy come back into my fingertips. I felt like a writer again. I felt like I could write something good.

What was your favourite scene to write?

The scene at the abandoned house that I mentioned above, but also, the finale. It was breathtaking to write! I’m usually terrible at writing action and fighting scenes, but by then, I was invested in Laine and what happened to her. So writing that final showdown, where she faces her demons for the first time in ten years, was also heartbreaking in a way. And I think it gave the action sequence the super-high emotional stakes that made it easy to write.

What’s your writing process like? Do you have a strict schedule or can you write anywhere, anytime?

It depends on the project. I wrote the first draft of GIRL LAST SEEN in a couple of months, but the second and third drafts took a little more time and a little more discipline. It wasn’t about getting the words out anymore—it was about making them make sense. Which is (I think most writers will agree with me) a lot more difficult. Sometimes the writing flows, and other times, I have to force myself to get behind my desk (or motivate myself with chocolate… or bacon).

If you could pair your book with any reading snack or drink, what would you suggest?

Milk oolong tea (that’s a tea that tastes faintly creamy, not tea with milk in it—I’m sure some people like that, and that’s their business…) and dark, dark, dark chocolate. Together.

A decade after escaping from a kidnapper who held her prisoner for three years, a young woman must face the reality that he’s taken another little girl.

Thirteen years ago, Ella Santos existed. Now that girl is gone, replaced by Lainey Moreno, an acerbic woman who subsists on cigarettes and whatever pills she can find, trying desperately to forget the years she spent locked in a basement with the man who raped her. Until she sees a missing poster for 10-year-old Olivia Shaw, privileged where Lainey was poor, loved where Lainey was neglected. Improbably, the detective on the case is Sean Ortiz, the traffic cop who found Lainey the day she got away, the only one who doesn’t think Lainey is broken beyond repair. The refrain—and it becomes an almost literal one throughout the increasingly predictable narrative—that Lainey believes she is worthless but Sean sees her potential grows tiresome, as do the allegedly shocking but actually humdrum revelations about Lainey’s past and her connections to Olivia. Laurin, in her debut, tries for psychological depth by sidestepping the victim role for her heroine—an admirable choice—but instead plonks her in the decidedly less interesting resigned-vigilante camp, where her sense of agency disappears as fast as the pills she swallows.

It’s not challenging to root for a character who’s damaged, but it is hard to find common ground with someone who’s constantly negating her own self-worth in place of an actual plot.

“A well-written and compelling novel that offers more than suspense; it offers a deeper understanding of how sexual assault can leave its victims broken. Ms. Laurin is to be congratulated for her achievement . . .”

Nina Laurin hits a homerun with her debut suspense novel, Girl Last Seen. Featuring a flawed protagonist desperate to leave her past behind, Girl Last Seen explores the reasons behind the bad choices a victim of a sexual crime may make, as well as the courage required to prevent her predator from claiming another victim.

Ten-year-old Ella Santos is abducted although it is several days before her abusive, drunken mother bothers to report her missing.

Three years later Ella Santos is found on the edge of a road with inch-wide scars on her wrists and ankles. And pregnant.

Ten years pass, and Ella Santos is now Laine Moreno, addicted to whatever drugs she can buy or steal, living in by herself in a squalid apartment because she can’t stand to share space with anyone else, and working at whatever menial job she can find.

She told the police everything she knew about her abduction, but has never been able to identify or even describe her abductor. But she remembers the basement in which she was imprisoned for three years, remembers the low ceiling, the concrete floor, the chains and ropes. But her abductor always wore a mask, so she never saw his face.

Her shrink calls her Lainey, but she prefers Laine, not that it matters. “I didn’t even choose the name. They picked it at random at the hospital, some soap opera heroine’s first name and a generic surname to go with it. As unremarkable as possible. Hiding me in plain sight—that was the rationale.” In a sense Lainey’s abductor stole not only her innocence, but her very identity.

When Lainey’s boss hands her some missing persons’ circulars to post in the grocery store, Lainey’s life becomes even more chaotic. “I force myself to look at the face in the photo . . . Oliva Shaw could be my mirror image, rewound to thirteen years ago . . . Another thing I know from my late-night Internet forays: kidnappers, rapists, serial killers—they don’t just stop. They are stopped. Whoever stole me—stole Ella—was never found. But in the last ten years, there hasn’t been another girl. And now there is.”

Lainey instinctively knows that whoever kidnapped Olivia Shaw is the same man who kidnapped her. Her instinct is confirmed when Sean Ortiz, the police officer who found her on the side of the road and now a detective with the Seattle PD, contacts her at the bar where she works the late shift.

Terrified by the past that Sean conjures up, Lainey runs. ”In the books and movies, the broken girl always dies at the end. Sometimes she’s allowed one final heroic act, one last snarky line before she goes out . . . But she always dies, because she’s too tarnished to live.”

Lainey sees herself as tarnished, and wishes she had died because she is “A living dead girl.” When Sean tells her that Olivia Shaw is her daughter, the baby that she gave birth to after being released by her abductor, the baby taken from her by the authorities because she was too young and incapable of caring for an infant, Lainey is conflicted. “What am I supposed to feel for the girl? For the child whose father kept me in a basement for three years, who—“

The police believe that Lainey may know something about Olivia’s abduction, that she might even have taken part in it. Sean is sure that is not true, but it is a possibility that must be considered. “We’ll need you to make a statement about where you were the day she went missing.”

Lainey is caught up in a nightmare. She wears long sleeves and high boots to hide the thick scars on her wrists and ankles that are the daily reminders of her abductor, his brands on her flesh, but still the police are suspicious.

Not only are the police—all but Sean—a threat to her, but Lainey discovers that someone has been in her apartment and stolen her laptop and some of her stash of pills. She no longer has a safe haven. Instead of reporting the break-in, Lainey hides out at her friend Natalia’s house.

Then, Jacqueline Shaw, Olivia’s adopted mother, calls Lainey. “We talked to the police and Detective Ortiz, and we would like to meet you.”

The meeting with Thomas and Jacqueline Shaw is a surreal experience for Lainey and for them, but it marks a turning point. Lainey becomes much more involved in the hunt for Olivia, the child she never got to hold. Along the way she experiences betrayal by those she thought might—maybe—be her friends, and learns of an earlier betrayal that was the impetus for her abduction.

Girl Last Seen is almost painful to read as both the suspense and the betrayals mount. While one might be irritated by some of Lainey’s bad choices, one can understand the horrible damage that was inflicted on her and the memories that linger with her every day. One also feels the anger at the callous way social services treated her. What is remarkable about Lainey Moreno, or Ella Santos, is her courage. She may believe that she is tarnished, but her character is pure gold when it counts.

A well-written and compelling novel that offers more than suspense; it offers a deeper understanding of how sexual assault can leave its victims broken. Ms. Laurin is to be congratulated for her achievement, and one looks forward to her next novel.

Laine Moreno, the traumatized narrator of Laurin’s emotionally powerful but plot-challenged debut thriller, is barely managing to sleepwalk through her solitary existence in Seattle a decade after being freed from three years of horror at the hands of a captor who was never caught. Then the highly publicized disappearance of 10-year-old girl Olivia Shaw gives her a jolt. Although the missing girl comes from privilege, a world away from Laine’s precarious childhood with a junkie single mom, their physical resemblance is startling enough to suggest to Laine that their cases might be connected. The same notion strikes Det. Sean Ortiz, one of the two cops who initially discovered Laine by the edge of a deserted road. All too swiftly, Laine’s efforts to help save Olivia start to threaten both her tenuous stability and her life itself. Laurin creates a compelling, vulnerable central character, but Det. Ortiz and several members of the supporting cast function largely as devices to propel a story arc ultimately more clever than convincing.

Sometimes I read a book that I just cannot put down until I have finished it. When this happens I know pretty quickly and I prepare my cozy reading area. I furnish it with pillows and blankets, chocolate, water and my drink of choice. I get giddy like a kid going to a slumber party. I know I’ll be transported to a different world for the next few hours and I relish in that excitement. I got to start my summer with that thrilling sense of anticipation. I knew after reading the Prologue of GIRL LAST SEEN, I wouldn’t be putting it down until I was finished reading. I was certain I was in for a dark, twisty, suspenseful ride, so I prepared my cozy corner and buckled up.

Ella was ten years old when she disappeared. She was missing for 3 years before being discovered by police wandering on the side of the road in the rain. At 13 years old, after having suffered at the hands of her captor in a dank basement for 3 long years, Ella had retreated so far inside herself to survive that she barely had an identity left. In the wake of her release and recovery, the people caring for this broken survivor decided that changing her identity was in her best interest. A new name would serve as a fresh, protective shell to hide her from her captor and the public that would want to feast on her tragic story like vultures, allow her a fresh start. After all, everyone kept reminding her how lucky she was to be alive, how lucky she was to have survived. Ella Santos was the 10 year old girl who went missing, the girl that endured 3 years of hell. Lainey Moreno was the name they gave the girl that emerged, the girl that bore her scars, both physical and emotional, the girl that had to keep moving forward because she had survived.

The man that took Ella Santos was never found. In the ten years since her time in that basement, Lainey has survived. She hasn’t healed and built a life, she has survived, mostly with the help of prescription medication to dull the pain and panic attacks. Lainey lives a hazy life, that is lonesome and walled off from most people. She has interactions only with the people she has to in order to hold down a job and rent an apartment. Her closest friend is her drug dealer because he provides the means to dull the jagged edges of her existence. No one knows that she was the girl that survived three years in captivity. Lainey Moreno is just another borderline junkie that lives in a heinous neighborhood. No one knows that Lainey Moreno is the girl that the police and doctors said was so lucky to have survived. And Lainey has no intention of ever letting anyone find out that she is that girl.

Now, ten years later, another girl has disappeared. Her name is Olivia Shaw, she is ten years old, and she was last seen outside of her elementary school wearing a white spring jacket and pink boots. Lainey sees the Missing Person poster with Olivia’s picture on it and her world, one that is held together with tape and glue, begins to unravel. Lainey looks into the face of Olivia Shaw and sees herself, a ten year old girl, an innocent child, with dark curly hair and brown skin and she knows in her bones that the same man that took her 13 years ago has taken this girl. Now she has to choose, whether to revisit the past she tries so hard to escape with pills and seclusion to save this little girl from becoming as tarnished as she is, or continue on and leave Olivia Shaw’s fate in the hands of the same people that never found her when she was missing for 3 years.

This debut novel is a gritty thriller with dark twists you won’t see coming. Lainey is an unreliable narrator, as well as a tortured soul who has a resilience she is unaware of for whom my heart broke over and over. The characters that surround her are well-developed and complex evoking feelings of love and hate in the same sentence. The heart breaking, heart-racing journey that they go on together will keep you guessing to the nail-biting end.

GIRL LAST SEEN is a perfect summer read that pairs well with Dreaming Tree cabernet and a cozy reading corner where you will stay up all night devouring this 4 star thriller.

This book opens with the escape of Ella Santos from her captor, who’s held the 13 year old for three years. We next meet her a decade later, where she lives in anonymity under a pseudonym (Lainey) assigned to her many years earlier.

We soon learn Ella was the child of a fairly disinterested mother and it took a while for anyone to actually notice that she’d gone missing after her mother was imprisoned. It made it hard therefore, for investigators to understand when and where she was taken. And given her family background and how little the 13 year old could share on her release about her masked captor, investigators perhaps looked a less less fervently than they might have otherwise done.

It’s now ten years later and newly-missing Olivia is from a wealthy family and a world away from the child Ella was. There are similarities though (although for me drawing the link was a bit of a stretch other than the physical similarities between Olivia and Ella) so Lainey’s spidey senses are tingling.

There were a few surprises in this book – and they weren’t necessarily just the whodunnit kind. They actually helps link the two cases so it becomes obvious they’re somehow connected. We don’t learn a lot more about Lainey’s own kidnapping and time spent with her captor, but she finally confronts her past and it’s something she needs to do – not to mention heightening the intrigue for we readers.

There’s an interesting dynamic between Lainey and Sean, one of the investigators – one who saw the damaged 13 year old she once was and looks beyond her current bravado. I actually liked that Laurin wasn’t tempted to have Lainey turn her life around completely and the young woman is obviously still struggling with her history. She works two jobs to make ends meet but is dependent on an array of pharmaceuticals to get her through the day. Her addiction only increases as she deals with the anxiety of police scrutiny and media attention.

Similarly Olivia’s parents and detective Sean Ortiz are complex enough that we’re not sure we can completely trust them. It adds to the suspense, along with the unexpected revelations thrown in along the way.

Of course, as the links between the cases become more obvious it seems likely that Lainey may again be in danger, but (at the same time) may also be the only one who can help Olivia… so I couldn’t put this down and read it in a sitting.

Girl last seen, by debut author Nina Laurin, is a deeply disturbing thriller that keeps you on edge as you become lost in a maze of twists, turns and a whole lot of emotion.

Laine is at the center of this thrilling book. Kidnapped at age 10, she’s held captive by a depraved pedophile for 3 years. 10 years later she’s struggling through life trying to cope with the severe trauma she’s suffered; typically through the use of prescription drugs and alcohol. She’s utterly destroyed.

“I’ve barely been able to leave a mark on my own life.”

This girl gets no breaks! Prior to her kidnapping she’s neglected by her junkie mother and after her captivity she’s thrown into an institution becoming a faceless ward of the state. Being a poor girl with no support and no family to speak of the police didn’t make much effort to find her captor. She simply isn’t seen as important enough to spend a lot of resources on.

She’s doing the best she can but her constant anxieties follow her around like a dark shadow she can’t quite shake without “help”. Then one day Laine sees a photo of a missing 10 year old girl named Olivia Shaw who seems to bear some resemblance to her. Her world is suddenly turned upside down as dread begins to seep into her mind. Is her captor involved or is she just being paranoid?

Sean Ortiz, the cop assigned to Olivia’s case, was the one who found Laine 10 years prior. There is an immense amount of pressure to find Olivia because unlike Laine’s case Olivia’s is high-profile. He has a hunch that there’s a connection between Olivia’s abduction and Laine’s. He has no choice but to track down and question Laine, but he’ll have to face some demons of his own when he sees her again.

Sean carries around guilt when it comes to Laine. He’s fully aware that the effort the police put into Laine’s case was minimal and can’t help but feel he let her down. Now he has to ask her for help to find Olivia and he knows he’s asking a lot. When Laine sees Sean again she’s overwhelmed but despite her fears she agrees to help bringing her face to face with her past.

As the investigation continues Laine is progressively becoming more fragile. She’s trying to cope with the added anxiety and is growing more paranoid by the day. Coupled with drugs she’s heading towards a breakdown. BUT is her paranoia warranted?

The author doesn’t hold anything back! Through Laine’s troubled eyes I see what she sees, felt what she felt and it’s visceral! The emotion is so honest and messed up. I not only question the characters motives but Laine’s very account of what she’s experiencing and learning about the case. Some very uncomfortable questions arise that keep her constantly on edge. I fell into a downward spiral with her as she struggles with her memories, anxiety, new found obsession with Olivia’s case and cocktail of prescription drugs. I was so eager to see what happened next!

The overall character development is very well done. Laine was endearing and willing to try her best to fight her own fears. Even at her most vulnerable there was a piece of her that just wouldn’t give up. I could not, however, connect with Sean. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what kind of person he was.

In terms of plot, there were minor moments when I felt that parts of the story were moving in an interesting direction and then left hanging without tying up loose ends. It almost felt like the author wasn’t a hundred percent sure which direction to go with the story. That’s what kept me from giving full ratings. But it was minor so didn’t detract too much from the story. Regardless, fabulous debut novel with a wonderfully satisfying ending that wasn’t what I expected.

Raw, gritty and fast paced, Girl Last Seen is a highly enjoyable read that will keep the “who dunnit” lovers eagerly flipping those pages to see what happens next. Nina Laurin is definitely an author to watch out for and I look forward to future books!

“Olivia Shaw, Age ten, missing for one week tomorrow”

After seeing the poster it’s all she can think about. Running on a loop in her head “Olivia Shaw, age 10, last seen….”

Laine works two jobs, trying to make ends meet. Her evening job is as a bartender in a strip-club. She’s working and notices one of the patrons is blatantly staring at her. It starts to creep her out. She’s about to tell him off but then he calls her by name. It takes her a moment to place the familiar voice. Then she remembers….it’s Detective Sean Ortiz with the Seattle PD. As soon as she realizes who he is, her first instinct is to flee. He gives chase catching up to her easily and wants to know why she ran. She doesn’t know what to tell him as she’s not sure why she ran either. She wonders what he wants from her.

“Laine…this is about a missing girl”

And then he proceeds to tell her something else that she did NOT see coming.

They need Laine’s help and she wants to help, but she’s not sure how. She doesn’t remember anything more about her time in captivity or her kidnapper.

I have to say I was really pulled in by the beginning of this book. However, about halfway through I started having trouble with a few things. I know that all characters won’t be likeable all the time. But everyone seemed unlikable. For one thing there aren’t a lot of characters in the book and I was having a hard time connecting with any of them. Of course I felt sorry for Laine….the girl hasn’t caught a break her whole life. She’s addicted to drinking and drugs which after everything she’d been through isn’t surprising. But some of her decisions were frustrating beyond belief. As time went on I did start to feel more for her and I was definitely engrossed in the story and what was happening.

There was also something about Detective Sean Ortiz that put my teeth on edge. I had a really hard time liking him. I found him inconsistent…which of course characters can be, but some of his actions as a detective and a man both baffled and angered me.

(view spoiler)
However, I was still intrigued and wanted to know what was going to happen. Laine is determined to help the Shaw family find their daughter, even if it means putting herself in danger.

What secrets is Laine still hiding? And the missing girls parents seem to have secrets of their own.

Where is Olivia?

The book started off really good. The plot had me intrigued. Then it sort of lagged from the middle on. However, the action definitely picked up again in the last few chapters. In fact at that point I had a hard time putting it down. So I am glad that I stuck with it.

This book actually made me sweat. Like, full on, I’m so scared right now, you’re messing with my head, type of sweat. And I loved it. I was recommending this all over social media and was so highly invested I didn’t want to go to my weekly volleyball game when things started getting realllll twisty towards the end. If you can handle a disturbing thriller, get this one, because it will stick with you. I will say if you can’t handle disturbing situations such as child sexual abuse, you need to avoid this one, because the ending gets extremely dark. Absolutely chilling, a book that will keep you up at night, and one I highly recommend if this is your genre.

*3.5 Stars*

Girl Last Seen offers everything I look for in a thriller: mystery, suspense, an untrustworthy cast of characters, a twisty “whodunnit” plot, not to mention that eerily beautiful cover—and yet the way it was all sort of haphazardly pulled together left me slightly underwhelmed.

But why not start with the positive: The characters were gritty and uncensored—in fact, so were the elements of the plot—and I love that. If you’re going to create a lost and abused, pill-popping, drug addicted female protagonist, I want to be able to *feel* her desperation to my core—and I DID.

I felt “icky” (Amy *Foxy’s* term, All Rights Reserved;) and uncomfortable, and deeply saddened for the tragedy our heroine endured. This author knows how to breathe life into her characters, and their hopelessness was suffocating.

The suspense was thickly layered, turning almost everyone into a suspect at some point, and sparked a lingering guessing game for the reader. Without giving away any spoilers—the ending was a change from most of the thrillers I’ve been reading lately, and although it closed in a way I don’t typically prefer, I will say, in this case, I was left satisfied.

The not-so-postive : As alive as this story became, I didn’t find myself wondering about it much or compelled to pick it back up after I’d stopped reading, and I’m not exactly sure why. The writing style was decent, but didn’t leave a huge impression, and there were some undercooked scenarios in this story that appeared to hold significance but were left to dangle as loose ends.

Although the structure of the plot felt a little unpolished, I do think this book has incredible potential, and would definitely recommend to those looking for a thriller with an unrefined edge.

Twenty-three-year-old Laine is an active member of a conspiracy theory message board. She watches the news, the missing children flyers, waiting for someone else to disappear like she did. That’s because her name used to be Ella–back before she was kidnapped and held captive. Even though the man who took her has never been found, there’d never been another missing girl who matched a description like hers until Olivia Shaw goes missing. Despite Olivia living a completely different life than Laine had lived when she was younger, Laine is sure that the disappearances are linked. She just needs to convince the police–and remember who had taken her all those years ago.

“I was spared so that I could watch it happen again, unable to do anything about it.”
– Loc. 159

Desperate for information, and to put the missing pieces of her own memory and case back together, Laine reunites with the cop-turned-detective who originally found her after she was freed. With time running out, and pressure from the police and Olivia Shaw’s parents on, Laine feels like it’s up to her to figure out what happened to Olivia Shaw–and why she, and Laine, were taken in the first place.

“That’s how he sees me, a missing person, even though I haven’t been missing for a decade now. But to him, and to the rest of the world, I’ll forever be Girl Last Seen.”
– Loc. 579

Laurin’s writing style is not just captivating, but easy to read, making this book impossible to put down. While not quite in the same realm as Paula Hawkins in terms of style, Girl Last Seen is an excellent choice for fans of Girl on the Train.

Set to the dark, rainy backdrop of Seattle, Girl Last Seen is full of dark twists and turns the reader will never see coming.