Release date: October 8, 2024
Publisher: Zibby Books
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis:
An overwhelmed new mother gets entangled in the unsolved disappearance of a young girl from her Texas hometown—and unearths her own family’s dark secret. What sacrifices will a mother make to protect her own child?
Bee. It’s 2011 and disoriented new mom Bee is living in Portland, Maine when Leo, her childhood crush and twin brother Gus’ best friend, suddenly resurfaces to share news of Gus after years of silence. Bee’s predictable life is upended, pushing her back to Texas to dig into an unsolved disappearance that seems connected to her own family’s fracture. Mary. Twenty years earlier, Mary feels trapped, her only escape the local community theater. Despite her efforts to be a perfect homemaker, Mary’s lost her grip on her teenaged twins, Gus and Bee. Deeply lonely, Mary barely knows her neighbor, Diana—until a tragic discovery forces her to seek Diana’s help. Diana. Across the field, Diana, freshly divorced and facing an uphill battle as a woman in academia, worries constantly about her teenaged son, Leo, especially when a local girl goes missing. Told in multiple perspectives with two different timelines, The Undercurrent is a gripping portrait of female longing, thwarted ambition, and buried secrets.
Review:
This was a slow burn, character driven mystery that had many different layers and themes giving it tons of depth. It’s a quiet style of suspense, there’s not a ton of action but I still found the narrative to be compelling. I loved the themes of motherhood and the exploration of how far one would go to protect their children, this lead to so many secrets and fractures in both families and I was so curious to see how things would play out. You get two timelines, one in 2011 and one in 1987 and I was equally invested in both. The authors writing was strong and engaging and I’m impressed this was a debut, if you enjoy mysteries with some meat and substance with characters that will linger with you try this!
Overall rating: 4/5
Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.
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