I’ll be honest, it took me a very long time to get through this audiobook, not because the narration was bad, because it wasn’t. This is a complicated and pretty confusing story, especially in the beginning. I did warm up to it after a while and I enjoyed Susan, a detective in charge of a cold case that her father worked back in the seventies, and with his help they begin to open the case of the missing Trudy Solomon. I thank Netgalley and CamCat Books for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook.

I really tried with this book, however, I find myself in the minority of readers who found the story to be convoluted and difficult to follow. Unfortunately it is a dnf for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall the story was a solid detective/procedural novel, however there were a few attempts to maybe bring diversity (?) that were ill placed. The narration was great, and the pacing was good.

This book had a lot going on in it and I totally love that! I am definitely adding this series to my list of series that I read! I can't wait to see more of Det. Ford's investigations and how her relationship progresses and if she can heal her relationship with her mother.

#TheDisappearanceofTrudySolomon
#NetGalley

I wanted to read this book because my mom’s name is Trudi. Although she spells it with an I instead of why, but I could not really get into it. I’m not sure what it was but this book just is not for me.

This one just wasn't my cup of tea. I feel like it moved slowly and I didn't really feel engaged by the story. It felt like a slog to get through.

A relatively good mystery with a fair number of twists. I found the pace a little slow to build and had trouble hanging on, but the ending wrapped up well. I liked the characters and the upstate NY setting.

The Roth's own the Cuttman Hotel in the Catskills and they made it a glamorous mainstay. Trudy Solomon disappeared, and the case is reopened. The members of the Roth family may hold the key to Trudy's disappearance, but they are holding those secrets tight. The story flowed smoothly, and the plot was entertaining. The narrator did a good job bringing this story to life.

Disclaimer: Thank you NetGalley and CamCat Book, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks for this copy of this audiobook and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was an interesting read, Be sure you are prepared to focus on this one read it slowly, There are a lot of characters to keep up with. A lot of turns in this mystery book. I highly recommend this book. It’s a great book for readers who enjoy crime books and mysteries without all of the dark, gritty, and violent details.

Special thanks to Cam at Books and NetGalley for the audio version of this book.

I enjoyed this book so thoroughly. Great mystery, great narrator, a ton of things that led to other things.
Highly recommend in audio.

Detective Susan Ford had been only 13 years old in August 1978 when her dad, William Ford, was the lead detective, grappling with a case surrounding the mysterious disappearance of Trudy Solomon, a waitress at the Cuttman Hotel run by Stanley and Rachel Roth.

Forty years later, a female skeleton is found. At first, police believe it is Trudy, until Trudy is found alive and well, and suffering from dementia. William is keen to solve the cold case, to find out who the skeletal remains belong to, and he wants Susan to be part of the reopened investigation. With the availability of forensics and computer databases, he has a better chance of solving the case now.

But Susan isn’t keen on revisiting the time or place. Lori Roth, one of the four Roth kids, used to be her best friend, until the friendship suddenly disintegrated when they turned 13.

Pretty soon it becomes clear that the Roths all hold a clue to the case.

While Susan doesn’t want to dig up the past, she could do with a respite. She had been shot by a drug dealer and has been accused of shooting and killing an innocent black teen, Calvin Barnes.

Susan and William have two months to solve the case. Will they get answers before their time runs out? Does Susan have the courage to visit the Roth family and the memories they dredge up? And will she have respite in the Barnes case?



The book is largely written in the first person past tense PoV of Susan. We also get the 3rd person past tense PoV of Trudy, whose memories are unreliable. Each of the chapters advances the timeline by a day.



There were so many characters that it was hard to keep track of who was talking. The problem gets compounded in an audio book, when it’s hard to go back and see where we encountered a character before.



Rachel Fulginetti, the narrator, did a good job with all the characters. She changed her voice to suit different characters, but it was difficult when there were two women speaking. If the prose didn’t give us an indication of who was talking, we were on our own. The runtime of this audio book was 10 hours and 36 minutes.



It was refreshing to see a Main Character aged 53. Older women are so little represented in films and books. Older adult fiction should have its own genre.



Along the way, the author also raises issues relating to racism and race relations, police brutality, alcoholism, depression, gender diversity etc. There’s an inclusion of a subplot relating to racism and Black Lives Matter.



There are many crimes here. The disappearance of Trudy paves the way for murders, kidnap of babies and blackmail.



The book unwittingly makes a case for forgiveness in order to heal the hurt in dysfunctional families.



I liked Susan. What I didn’t like was the abundance of bad language strewn throughout this book. Almost every character swore. That was a huge turn-off for me. The book could have been a lot leaner without all the F-bombs. I would not want to read the next book in the series owing to the foul language.

This book definitely kept me guessing! Susan was a decently likeable character. The Roth family was full of questionable and suspicious people. Every question that got answered opened up several new questions that kep the story going in all sorts of crazy directions. The plot line was pretty unrealistic but it was definitely entertaining! I listened to the audiobook and I thought the narrator did a great job and was well suited for this book.

thanks #netgalley for this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed the story, the characters and the complexity of the cold case. Highly recommend.

This book was such a fun mystery and the absolute perfect fall read. It’s a great book for readers who enjoy crime books and mysteries without all of the dark, gritty, and violent details. I read this one when it was first released, but absolutely loved getting to hear the chosen voice for the audiobook. Great selection!

My thoughts 💭
There is a LOT to unpack in this book—there’s the main mystery that focuses on the disappearance of Trudy, the discovery of two other murders, as well as another thread involving Susan’s fate as a detective. It’s fun to see how all of the different threads come together to create an engaging and intriguing story. There’s a slew of interesting characters (grab a notepad—it will come in handy!), but my absolute favourites are the father-daughter detective duo of Will and Susan—their relationship is so genuine. This book is well written, has a good plot, and is so full of twists that you won’t see coming. And I LOVED how everything was all tied together in the end. I definitely recommend this one!

As a resident of Massachusetts I found all the references to local towns really fun. There were several intriguing plot lines in this book, interweaving present day interactions with past intrigue. I also felt like I really understood the detective's family life and relationship with the community. I did find the quantity of characters difficult to keep track of at times and didn't feel that I had a deep understanding of the main character by the end.

When Detective Susan Ford was growing up Catskills, The Cuttman Hotel was the place to be and the owners, the Roth family, were the local royal family. Susan was 13 when her father, then Detective William Ford, was assigned the case of a missing Cuttman Hotel waitress, Trudy Solomon. The case would remain an unsolved obsession for him until, and beyond, his retirement.
Forty years have passed and Detective Susan Ford asks to be put on a case involving human remains which were found and thought to be those of Trudy Solomon. With her father at her side, they begin to rebuild Trudy's last known movements, Leads keep bring them back to employees of the Cuttman and the Roth family themselves. How were members of the Roth family woven into her world? What were they hiding? Were the remains those of Trudy or someone else?
The disappearance of Trudy Solomon is an character and plot driven mystery that is not reliant on fancy technology or science to neatly move the story forward. This is a good "gumshoe" detective story with a few McGuffans along the way. Marcy McCreary has written a well told story that will keep you turning pages to see what could possibly happen next. I look forward to reading more of her work!
My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was an enjoyable mystery, with interesting detectives and many suspects. The audiobook narrator was excellent.

This was really heavy going for a while, there were too many names and characters, the story was a bit disjointed, and at first I didn't like the narrator at all.

The good news is it picked up and I became quite engrossed in the doings of the dreadful Roths and Co. An interesting premise, and I would like to read more about Suzan and her dad, with any luck it becomes a series.

And the narrator grew on me.

3.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

*Many thanks to Marcy McCreary, CamCat Books, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I enjoy cold cases books, and this offering seemed more than intriguing. No spoliers here, so suffice to say that the former and present father-daughter detective duo join forces to uncover the truth about the 40-year-old disappearance of Trudy who is found to be alive. This makes the cold case intriguing, however, I admit that there was too much of detail and too many characters appearing for me not to lose track of the plot.
Enjoyable yet not riveting, narration superb though.

I really enjoyed this story. I read a lot of mystery/thriller novels and I liked that this one was different in that it was almost like a story inside a story. Rather than just describing what happened, it was describing the main characters search and discovery of what happened. The story unfolds because the characters pursue the truth - and I thought this was a unique concept. I gave 4 stars because there were some actions of the characters that I felt were a little dated. Would absolutely recommend this to others.