What Remains of Her

What Remains of Her
Eric Rickstad
William Morrow
Harper Collins Publisher
New York, New York
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-06-284331-9
2018
$ 14.99
404 pages

When a mother and her daughter disappear, who is the likely suspect?   Naturally, most law enforcement would accuse the husband.  There is a catch, the husband is a professor of poetry at a local college and seems to sincerely miss both every second of every day.  No clues, no evidence, the two seemed to have disappeared from the planet.
Jonah Blum sees his world ripped from him when his beautiful wife, Rebecca and his daughter, Sally vanish.   A family of three becomes a lonesome, single life of one.   The community along with the media, immediately throw guilty verdicts at Jonah, but there is no evidence, just circumstances.
Jonah’s long-time friends, Maurice immediately enlisted the help of his deputies in the search.   Also, questioned was Sally’s best friend, Lucinda, who also happens to be Maurice’s daughter.
Jonah leaves his home and lives as a hermit.  For a quarter of a century, life for him is simply surviving in a cabin in the nearby woods.
A foster child is missing, Lucinda is now a deputy herself, Maurice is retired, reclusive Jonah all return to his former home and life in discovering what happened to Rebecca and Sally.
The characterization is outstanding in What Remains of Her.  Each person is revealed as single layers are removed from an onion, everyone slowly peels each layer to show their true self, but many layers exist in each of us to hide who we really are.   The setting of a small, remote Vermont village can be visualized through the pages.   The time is the present, but could easily fit into the last fifty years.
The story is written as the third person, but the reader feels that it is almost first person, sitting with Jonah on his shoulder with a darkness constantly surrounding the town.
Eric Rickstad resides in Vermont.   He is a New York Times bestselling author of the books: Reap, The Silent Girls. Lie in Wait, and The Names of Dead Girls.
What Remains of Her in an an enthralling mystery for all adult readers.  I look forward to more novels by this thrillingly dark author of a marvelous piece of literature.