Published by Scribner on July 10, 2018

Half Moon Bay is a town in northern California. Early in the novel that Alice LaPlante named after the town, LaPlante describes the place and the nature of the people who inhabit it in photographic detail.

A mile north of Half Moon Bay is Princeton-by-the-Sea, where 39-year-old Jane O’Malley lives in a cottage. A year and two months after the death of her daughter Angela, Jane is still shattered. She claims to be building a new life, but she cannot overcome the sense that she has been punished for daring to experience brief moments of happiness. If anything, she might be coming apart even more as she tries to hide from everyone who knows her.

Jane blames herself for her daughter’s death. Jane’s relationship with her rebellious teenage daughter was typical, meaning not good, and the bad memories impair Jane’s ability to come to terms with her death.

Much of Half Moon Bay is about Jane’s efforts to escape from her pain, including the joy she experiences when she spends time with a new couple in town. Jane bonds with Alma, who has lost children, although Alma lost hers voluntarily, leaving them behind when she found Edward. Jane bonds with Edward in a different way. The young surfer dude who helps her tend plants at the local nursery seems oddly attentive, and his interaction with Jane is just a little creepy.

The novel’s plot revolves around the abduction and murder of children at various intervals. When the bodies are found, each child (always a girl) is wearing makeup, her hair is styled, and she is posed as if she is enjoying the day. The media begin to overwhelm the locals because readers will always click news stories about dead children. The locals are suspicious of the newcomers in town (the ones who weren’t born there) and of single or newly divorced men. The town’s mood becomes grim as the pattern continues and the horror grows.

A number of town residents are offered as suspects, including Jane, who might be dealing with her grief by taking children from other parents. The novel creates a mystery by asking the reader to identify the killer from among those suspects, but it also creates a sense of foreboding. Danger for Jane seems to be lurking everywhere in the idyllic community where suspicion grows that she is a serial killer of children.

The story gains power from its realism: the media frenzy surrounding the murders; the judgmental townspeople who are quick to condemn on suspicion alone; the FBI agents who bully everyone who might be a suspect; the fear that overpowers parents; the guilt that parents feel when a child dies. Whether the novel’s resolution is realistic is questionable (the killer’s motivation is not entirely convincing, the mystery’s resolution is disappointingly obvious, and the final threat is too easily overcome), but by the time the last pages arrive, the reader simply wants a release from the suspense, and any release will do. In fact, my disappointment with the resolution did not arrive until I began to think about the novel, having been released from its spell. But the spell is the thing. The atmosphere, the depth of the characters, the tension — all of those elements are assembled with a master artisan’s care.

In addition to the suspenseful plot and strong characters, Half Moon Bay is worth reading for LaPlante’s perfectly pitched prose and for the characters’ differing perspectives of loss and motherhood. One perspective is that motherhood is a series of losses: a mother loses her baby when she stops nursing; a mother loses her child when she is able to focus on a task for three hours without once thinking about the child. The losses come again and again; each time the child changes into something new and less innocent, each time the child attains more independence. There are, of course, happier ways to look at parenthood, but Half Moon Bay reminds the reader that people process pain and loss in different ways, and that some people may be damaged beyond our understanding.

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Scribner and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Half Moon Bay. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

After the death of her daughter, Jane relocates to the sleepy town of Half Moon Bay to start over. When children start to disappear, the police start to point their fingers at Jane, as her lack of alibi raises red flags. With paranoia setting in, will Jane be able to hold it together until the perpetrator is found?

I was not a fan of this book, due to poor sentence structure, weak character development, and a plot that is predictable and lacks imagination. Despite the hardships that Jane has faced, I found it hard to sympathize with her. It did not seem all that realistic that the police would narrow their suspect pool, just because Jane happened to be walking in the vicinity of a missing child. The ending was completely rushed and felt as though the author decided it was time to end the book. Half Moon Bay is a missed opportunity by the author to give readers a true mystery, so I would not recommend it to other readers.

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the review copy. My opinion is my own.

I was thrilled to review this psychological thriller for review. I dived right in to the moody atmosphere of Half Moon Bay and the beautiful coast. it was the perfect setting for this dark tale.
In this book a grieving Mother has just lost her teenage daughter in a accident. She is not recovering and decides to move to Half Moon Bay on the urging of a friend and take a job in a nursery. She suffers tremendous grief and this part of the book is written with compassion and care to this sensitive subject. She spends a lot of time on the beach and moving throughout her days in a fog of grief.
But things are not what they seem and girls begin to disappear. Then the reader is lead down a different path and this book is very surprising.
I enjoyed the mood atmosphere of this book and the sensitivity to grief. The writing seemed a little disjointed to me and the writer used "italics" quite a bit which was confusing. I felt the editing piece of this book was not complete. I liked the supporting charcters and how they added to the story.

This was a disappointment. I found the writing to be choppy and repetitive. I didn't like any of the characters. Jane came across as just plain weird rather than very sympathetic. Edward and Alma were just plain creepy. The descriptions of the beach setting was nice (I always try to find something positive to say in a review!)

Thanks to NetGalley, Scribner, and Alice LaPlante for the opportunity to read and review her latest book. I was a huge fan of Turn of Mind and liked Circle of Wives as well. This one didn't quite live up to those in my opinion.

Jane's world collapses when her daughter is killed in an auto accident. Her and her husband divorce and she loses her job. With the help of a colleague, she takes a job in a plant nursery in Half Moon Bay. As the book progresses, we see erratic behavior from Jane - going to the beach in the wee hours, things that don't quite ring true. Then young girls start dying. Soon people and the police are looking at Jane differently.

I usually love books that slowly reveal the back story but this came across too disjointed. The writing style featured lots of very short sentences which didn't help the flow either.

A fabulous read that draws you in and doesn’t let go. Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante is an enthralling work of psychological suspense. I was hooked from the first page, and the book didn’t disappoint!
Set in the foggy seaside setting of Half Moon Bay, California, the setting lends an air of claustrophobia and mystery to the book, and I’m not sure the book would’ve been as powerful if it were set in a different location. We can feel the fog move in, we smell the sea, we sense the chill in the air, and we hear the pounding surf.
Besides the setting drawing the reader in, our main character, Jane, also draws the reader in. Jane is struggling with the death of her teenage daughter, who was killed in an accident, and her grief and pain was so real and raw. Jane’s internal struggle with her grief and daily living was compelling, and I was really rooting for her survival. While Jane wasn’t exactly likable, she makes some disturbing decisions throughout the book, she just felt exceedingly real. Her story is somewhat unreliable, as the reader never quite knows what exactly is going on as small details shift, stories change, and the mystery builds. I love this type of book, so was instantly captivated with trying to figure everything out.
Other characters in the novel are married couple Edward and Alma, and they were sensual and odd in an invasive way. They tended to appear constantly, and there was an air of the stalker about them. Edward was definitely giving me cult leader vibes as well. Edward and Alma didn’t annoy me, but rather heightened the mystery, but I could see how some readers may find them frustrating and unrealistic as they draw Jane into their web.
Another character is a co-worker of Jane’s, named Adam, and he was also at times kind, and then creepy, and again, almost stalker-like. I enjoyed trying to figure these characters out and my opinions of them all constantly changed throughout the course of the book.
In terms of the mystery, I found the mystery of the missing girls compelling. As young girls begin to disappear and their bodies are found, the story really goes up a notch, and the ending was very suspenseful. There was an abrupt ending to this book, and while I think this ending may put some readers off, I absolutely loved the way it ended. It ended with enough ambiguity for the reader to make their own mind up, but enough clues sprinkled throughout that if you have paid attention to the characters, then you know where the characters go from here. I appreciated the ambiguity and thought it was done well, with just enough for the reader to decipher.
I’d definitely recommend this title to those readers and book clubs that enjoy reading psychological suspense and weighty reads. This tackles heavy topics like grief and the death of children, but is full of discussion points and characters that you will have an opinion about. I loved this book!

Bottom Line: I was enthralled from beginning to end! Excellent psychological suspense!

"This will end in tears."

I am sorry I read this book and even more sorry that I finished it. I had a problem with the writing style from the very beginning but kept on reading because I had enjoyed the author's book TURN OF MIND and thought it's just got to get better. It didn't.

The main character is Jane, a middle-aged woman whose teenage daughter was hit by a car and died. Her marriage dissolves and she is unable to recover from this terrible loss.

She moves to a small coastal town south of San Francisco and works in a plant nursery.

And her life is deadly depressing. This is definitely not a feel good book.

Young girls disappear after she moves to the small town and are found dead. And she becomes a suspect.

Great premise but handled horribly.

I received this book from Scribner Books through Edelweiss and Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

First I want to thank netgalley and the author for an advanced kindle version of this book. I was greatly disappointed. I felt like this book was just all over the place and hard for me to keep straight. This book starts with he main character Jane who is dealing with the death of her daughter a year ago. She moves to a new town called half moon bay. Shortly after she arrives young girls start to go missing and are found dead. The town start to think it’s her. She meets a couple who are named Alma and Edward who become her friends and help her to deal with he death of her daughter. I didn’t like the ending or the beginning or middle. The book was difficult to finish. Plus Jane was a difficult character to relate with.

Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante is a so-so dark mystery/psychological study of a grieving mother.

A year ago Jane O'Malley lost her teenage daughter, Angela, to a car accident. Ever since that day, Jane's grief has been overwhelming, all-encompassing, and consuming her every thought. Her marriage ended. In an effort to find some way to live her life, Jane, a botanist, has moved to the tiny seaside town of Half Moon Bay to work at Smithson’s Nursery with the native plants. Awkward handling interpersonal relationships and conversations, Jane is just trying to find her way through her grief.

When the young girls start disappearing, though, Jane's loner ways and inept social skills put her on the police and FBI list of suspects. It doesn't help that Jane has no alibi for the time the girls disappear and for later, when their bodies are found. Her one, albeit weird and odd, obsessive need becomes her recent friendship with new residents, Alma Godwin and Edward Stanton, and her affair with Edward. But, as more information comes to light, Jane has been making bad decisions since her daughter's death. Can you trust her?

I'm not a fan of the writing technique LaPlante utilizes in Half Moon Bay. The dialogue is italicized, and part of Jane's thoughts in a stream-of-consciousness style. The narrative is told through Jane's first person account but, because Jane is so consumed with grief, and has her thoughts stray all the time, this can make the narrative difficult to follow.

While readers will feel sympathy for Jane, she is not a trustworthy or likeable character. Well, no one is in this dark, atmospheric psychological study (with the exception of Adam, a co-worker at the nursery). The ease in which Jane can be manipulated and seduced by Edward and Alma is annoying and disturbing. I've got to say that there is no great surprise about the plot or the ending of Half Moon Bay. Astute readers are going to know with certainty what direction the plot is going to take very early in the novel and will be correct.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Scribner.
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This had a lot of potential- and that went unfulfilled. Jane's grief at the loss of her daughter and her marriage propels her to move to Half Moon Bay, which seems like a good idea at the time. It's not, however, because she's the most malleable creature (and really odd) around. The relationship with Edward and Alma seems forced and creepy, the murders gratuitous, and the resolution unsatisfying. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Not high on my thriller list.

Having read Turn of Mind and A Circle of Wives by Alice LaPlante and enjoying them very much I was eager to read her newest offering, Half Moon Bay. I'm not sure what happened, but it is as if someone else wrote this book. It is not at all what I've come to expect from Ms. LaPlante.

Dark and disturbing, this book is filled with main characters that have no moral compass. At all. The word sociopaths comes to mind.

The main character Jane, is one hot mess. It was hard to feel sorry for her despite the many reasons given that the reader should. The writing was poor, the story a bit far-fetched. Nothing worked.

What happened here, Ms. LaPlante? You're capable of so much more than this!

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read an ARC in return for an honest review.

The beginning of this book really captivated me - I only meant to read a paragraph and realized I was already at 15%. The writing is lovely, although some editing might have been needed to clarify the protagonist's characteristics (she's described as missplacing things so frequently that she has multiple sets of car keys, yet later is distraught that she can't find a favorite garden tool where she left it because she believes in everything in its place) and eliminate some of the repetition - there were many descriptions of how smitten she was, to the point that I wondered if I'd hit the back button on my kindle and was re-reading a page I'd already read. Overall, it was a thrilling read, although the ending felt a bit rushed and unresolved.

Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for letting me read this novel in exchange for my review.

The story starts off with Jane having flashbacks and living in the current time. Jane is remembering the horrid past of her losing her daughter at a young age. In current times, a little girl in her neighborhood has been found dead. She had thought that moving to Half Moon Bay may be the cure for her depressed state of life. Unfortunately, the chain of events continues...more children disappear and Jane starts to see herself in a lot more of her neighbors as time goes on. Can she truly heal?

Honestly, this was the most choppy read I've ever experienced. It was creepy, yet predictable. I could not get my head into the story one bit. I was bored and not intrigued. It was so confusing and depressing...the story just jumped all over the place. I was sadly disappointed by this read and do not recommend it. Sorry!

1/5 Stars

Half Moon Bay was a twisty psychological novel of suspense. Jane lost everything when her daughter was killed in an accident. She's been unraveling since and is attempting to regain some semblance of peace in her life. Eventually children start disappearing in her town and Jane quickly becomes a suspect, thanks to the knowledge of her breakdowns after the death of her daughter. This was a chilling, twisty story. I was not a fan of the writing, it was very random and all over the place. The premise was good and kept me reading, but I can't get over how badly it's written. I could not connect with any of the characters and overall, just found this to be a strange mix. However, it did keep me reading and I did finish it to find out the outcome. For me, Half Moon Bay was ⭐️⭐️/5 stars. Thank you @scribnerbooks for this advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

Like many of the reviewers, I hate to write a bad review but even more, I hate reading a bad book and this is a bad book. If you are thinking of reading this, run. Don't waste your time. How this even got published is beyond me. What's so bad about it? The plot, the writing, the characters, shall I go on?

Jane is recovering from the death of her teen-age daughter in an auto accident a year ago and the subsequent divorce from a husband. She wanders in a fog and avoids human interaction as much as possible. This is supposed to be because of the recent events but stories from her childhood reveal she was always strange. One bizarre incident occurred when she was babysitting a child and bathed herself instead of her charge who sat on the toilet watching her. The parents were rightly horrified when they walked in.

Jane relocates to Half Moon Bay (sort of forced out of her job) to start a new life. There she meets newcomers, Edward and Alma. She immediately falls under their thrall and becomes their puppet. Why she suddenly drops her guard and begins an affair with Edward with Alma's blessing is never satisfactorily explained. But why bother? Nothing else makes sense.

There are some child abductions and murders. The murderer is no surprise at all but the reason is weird, weird, weird but then so is everything else in this book.

This is such a disappointment and mess. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME. Read some amazing book but this is not one of them. Thanks to Net Galley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review. Trust me, this was a fair review.

A haunting tale of a woman driven a little crazy by the loss of her teenage daughter in a senseless accident. Jane O'Malley has lost her daughter and husband, in an attempt to restart her life she moves from Berkeley to Half Moon Bay and takes a job at a local nursery that specializes in native plants. When not working she walks the desolate beaches and rides her motorcycle into the city. Jane keeps herself at arm's length from the local inhabitants, that is until Edward, an environmental activist, and Alma, an adjunct physics professor, arrive in town.

Before Edward and Alma's arrival, a little girl is abducted and murdered. Jane because of her past is considered a suspect. Tensions around town mount, as other young girls are abducted and murdered Jane is drawn in by first Edward then Alma, she becomes enthralled with the couple. Edward and Alma are not all that they seem, and Jane will discover that too late.

The book is not a psychological thriller instead it is a study of how people can misuse another.

Thanks for this book to review from net gallley and the publisher.
I really enjoyed this book set on the California Coast.
It is and exploration of the pain of loss and the skeletons we all have in our closet

I struggled reading this book. As the narration was in the third person, I felt very detached from the main character, Jane. As I read the book, I felt like Jane was somewhat detached from herself and her own life. She wasn't an active participant in her own story and was even an outsider to the main events of the book: the disappearance of young girls. I didn't care what was happening to the characters or in the story. It was as though Jane's lethargy crept from the book's pages into me.

I got through 41% of this book, and I really wanted to enjoy this but the writing was distracting with too many choppy sentences. Jane is consumed with her grief of her teenage daughter which is understandable, but I had no idea what direction this book was headed. I’m sorry this one wasn’t for me. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

The book starts off so convoluted I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Just nonsensical. Jane is enveloped in grief from the loss of her teenage daughter. And that grief has obviously affected her mind and we are the unwilling witnesses.

Unfortunately, this style of writing grates. I needed something more concrete. LaPlante has us wandering in the fog, in more ways than one. Unreliable narrators are all the rage these days. And sometimes it works well. Just not here. Or at least for me. And Alma and Edward are so strange. I struggled to see the attraction Jane felt for them and why she continued to interact with them. And what to make of Adam?

There is a weird creepiness factor to this book. I finished it, despite my severe reservations just to see how the ending would play out. And the ending was just as I expected it, which was a serious letdown.

So, long story short. Just not my kind of book. I liked Turn of Mind, so I won’t hesitate to try another book by LaPlante. But I can’t recommend this one.

My thanks to netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.