The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

After her mother kills herself, Lane Roanoke moves across the country to live with her grandparents and her cousin Allegra at the house her mother grew up in. Lane doesn’t know a lot about her family, because her depressed mother refused to speak of them. Lane quickly adjusts to the life of being a rich Roanoke girl, until a dark family secret is revealed and she runs.

More than ten years later, Lane gets a call that Allegra is missing. Desperate to help find her cousin, she returns to her family home and the people who drove her away.

Told between two alternating timelines, the past and the present, Lane works to uncover what happened to Allegra, and why.

I really enjoyed The Roanoke Girls and found myself quickly hooked in the story. There are a lot of characters history to keep track of, but the author included a family tree in the beginning of the book which I found immensely helpful. I referenced it quite a few times throughout the book to remember who was who.

Without giving anything away, I will say that the subject matter of The Roanoke Girls is very dark. While there is nothing graphic in the book, the subject matter speaks volumes on its own. I hadn’t read a book like this, so I enjoyed the unique concept, even though there were times I wanted to put it down and walk away and remember that not all of the world is so darkly disturbed!

The pace of the story worked well for me. The book wasn’t an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but more of a slow burning suspense, and it worked perfectly in my opinion! I really loved the ending of the book, and even though I’d guessed the ending, I still loved reading it and found myself anxious to find out what happened!

Overall, I loved the book and definitely recommend it for thriller fans who are okay with a slow building domestic suspense and the secrets that can drive families apart. Thank you to Netgalley, Amy Engel, and Crown publishing for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. The Roanoke Girls has a publication date of March 7, 2017 so be sure to mark your calendars!