WHAT WE FORGOT TO BURY

4 stars out of 5

With all due respect to the author - because I

really did enjoy this book, an Amazon First Reads pick - I must say there isn't a single character in it who isn't carrying around some level of crazy. In fact, the whole thing seemed like a frantic chase to discover which one is the most dangerous.

At a fairly impressionable age, Elle's father was convicted of trying to kill his then-wife Charlotte, who lost an unborn baby in the process (Elle was living with her mother at the time). Her dad has spent 10 years in jail insisting that he's innocent and that it's Charlotte's fault that he's there. Now, Elle and her father - whom she visits monthly at the prison - have cooked up a plot to get even.

Charlotte lives in an upscale neighborhood and has a part-time job teaching at a local college, but she's terrified of her own shadow. Her husband, Noah, has a job that keeps him on the road almost constantly, so she's double-locked every door and possible entryway into their home (including doors to the interior rooms). 

Elle, who on her own is an almost total misfit in society and lives with a nasty foster mom, manages to arrange a "meeting" with Charlotte. After that, with chapters alternating between perspectives of Elle and Charlotte, the rest of the book deals with Elle trying to ingratiate herself with the woman she believes is responsible for her father's incarceration. Elle's boyfriend Justin even gets involved with helping to discredit Charlotte and trying to make her nervous or confused enough that she'll spill the beans about what really happened the night she was attacked.

None is this is pretty, and in some ways it drags on a little bit longer than necessary to get the point across. That's especially the case after both Elle and Charlotte find themselves dealing with a real-life "issue" - one willingly, the other not so much. But as the end approached, I couldn't swallow my need to know how it all turned out; with less than a handful of chapters to go, I put off bedtime so I could find out. And yes, there were a few interesting surprises, so overall, good job!

What We Forgot to Bury by Marin Montgomery (Thomas & Mercer, May 2020); 439 pp.