What do you think?
Rate this book
The Girl Who Didn’t Die
Thirteen years ago, Melissa was abducted as a baby. Today, she was brutally murdered. Thirteen years after her only child, Melissa, died in the maternity ward, Alice Cannon learns that her daughter's body has been found by a lake in San Diego with multiple stab wounds. She realizes that someone stole Melissa after birth and tricked her into believing her baby was dead.
The records of the hospital where Alice gave birth show that she and Melissa were discharged in excellent condition the day after delivery. Did Melissa's abductor pose as Alice? Were the doctors part of the conspiracy to steal her child?
Alice finds out that Melissa was adopted by a childless couple, Michelle and Norman Keener, and she suspects they were behind her daughter's abduction. When the Keeners show Alice a video of her handing Melissa over to them, she begins to question her memory--and sanity. Did she forget giving her daughter away or is she a victim of a far-reaching conspiracy?
As Alice looks for clues, she discovers that she might be Melissa's killer.
Or maybe the real killer is trying to frame her.
*************************
This edition contains a preview of Abduction.
The records of the hospital where Alice gave birth show that she and Melissa were discharged in excellent condition the day after delivery. Did Melissa's abductor pose as Alice? Were the doctors part of the conspiracy to steal her child?
Alice finds out that Melissa was adopted by a childless couple, Michelle and Norman Keener, and she suspects they were behind her daughter's abduction. When the Keeners show Alice a video of her handing Melissa over to them, she begins to question her memory--and sanity. Did she forget giving her daughter away or is she a victim of a far-reaching conspiracy?
As Alice looks for clues, she discovers that she might be Melissa's killer.
Or maybe the real killer is trying to frame her.
*************************
This edition contains a preview of Abduction.
340 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 18, 2017
752 people are currently reading
267 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
June 9, 2017
Do yourself a favor and go beat your head into a brick wall before trying to read this. It was just painful to read. The ending was rushed and the whole story was implausible. I'm a police civilian and I can tell you right here and now that NO officer/detective would cheerfully run names/addresses/phone numbers willy-nilly, and if they did, they certainly wouldn't just hand the information over to a non-officer. I kept waiting for the lead detective to tell Alice to shut up, back off, and let them do their jobs... or arrest her for obstruction of justice. Or for one of the numerous people she harassed to file charges. Anything to lend a touch of reality to this crud.
Spoiler alert
*****************************************************************************
The ending was ridiculous. What adoptive parents would just go, "Ok, the kid isn't dead after all and you can have her back" after 13 years?!? Why would the kid just blithely accept a perfect stranger as her mom and go "Hey, I want to go live with her?"
I won't even start on the surprise twin and the stupid spy storyline.
Spoiler alert
*****************************************************************************
The ending was ridiculous. What adoptive parents would just go, "Ok, the kid isn't dead after all and you can have her back" after 13 years?!? Why would the kid just blithely accept a perfect stranger as her mom and go "Hey, I want to go live with her?"
I won't even start on the surprise twin and the stupid spy storyline.
February 23, 2017
Horrible!!
A High School student taking Creative Writing Class could have written a better more believable story. I tried to like this book, but it was just so far fetched and unbelievable I couldn't help laughing at most of it.
A High School student taking Creative Writing Class could have written a better more believable story. I tried to like this book, but it was just so far fetched and unbelievable I couldn't help laughing at most of it.
March 23, 2017
The worst writing I've ever seen in print
This was evidently written by a robot. it is written in strings of dialogue that tell a completely incomprehensible and unbelievable story.
This was evidently written by a robot. it is written in strings of dialogue that tell a completely incomprehensible and unbelievable story.
June 19, 2017
I couldn't finish the book. I don't think I even got half way through. It was so poorly written. I couldn't connect with the characters at all.
June 26, 2017
Did the Audio version. This was by far the worst book I have ever put up with. I do not recommend at all ever.
June 5, 2017
Disappointing Read
This book was a bit of a disappointment. I finished reading only because I wanted to know how the author was going to resolve the plot. The plot idea was a good one which is why I have given it one star. But that is about all there is to this book...a good idea that was very poorly developed.
The characters were flat and one dimensional and not very believable. The dialogue between characters felt stilted and forced and tedious to read. The general writing style seemed forced and stilted to me, and did not really flow. There were some twists and turns that seemed very contrived and not very credible, and in fact not even necessary.
The ultimate resolution was quite unbelievable and uninspired, and felt as if the author got tired of writing and just wanted to wrap it up. Without spoiling the ending for others I can say that the actions of the characters in the end really stretched one's ability to suspend disbelief.
This book would not be very high on my good books to read list, and I don't think I would be reading any more books by this author.
This book was a bit of a disappointment. I finished reading only because I wanted to know how the author was going to resolve the plot. The plot idea was a good one which is why I have given it one star. But that is about all there is to this book...a good idea that was very poorly developed.
The characters were flat and one dimensional and not very believable. The dialogue between characters felt stilted and forced and tedious to read. The general writing style seemed forced and stilted to me, and did not really flow. There were some twists and turns that seemed very contrived and not very credible, and in fact not even necessary.
The ultimate resolution was quite unbelievable and uninspired, and felt as if the author got tired of writing and just wanted to wrap it up. Without spoiling the ending for others I can say that the actions of the characters in the end really stretched one's ability to suspend disbelief.
This book would not be very high on my good books to read list, and I don't think I would be reading any more books by this author.
February 18, 2017
This book was so bad. It read like a court reporting transcript and gave no insight into who the characters were and how they interacted. It was painful to read. If you are looking to read for a play with no background info, go for it; otherwise, steer clear!
May 4, 2017
Awful... just awful. The writing style is that of a children's book and the dialogue consists of short, choppy sentences with no depth whatsoever. DO NOT recommend.
June 20, 2017
Dialog was terrible, and unrealistic. If it wasn't a shorter book I wouldn't have finished it.
June 10, 2017
Terrible. Couldn't finish it!!!
March 11, 2017
I couldn't even get past chapter 5 because the whole thing seemed so implausible. Alice starts out finding out her dead baby was alive and murdered at age 13. Then she propositions her boyfriend (after making love, which as a mom I can tell you no woman would ever do after finding out their child was murdered) to help her beat up or threaten her ex with a gun to find out if he sold their baby. The boyfriend says no but agrees to text the ex and demand 50 grand for keeping quiet about Ryan (the ex) selling the baby. Then Alice goes to meet Ryan and when he gets the text Ryan asks Alice if their baby did die, to which she says yes. Then after receiving a second text which he shows Alice she admits their child was alive and murdered 3 days ago. Then she promised to let him know what happened when she figures it out. He agrees and leaves. I was then left thinking Ryan was a moron because he didn't even question her changing her story, not did he find it bizarre that she wanted to see him after 13 years and he just happens to get these text messages while he was with her? How did he not correlate those two? Is every character in this book stupid? Alice doesn't remember who delivered her baby, again unlikely, because when I gave birth I knew exactly who the doctor was and he wasn't my regular OBGYN so I find it weird that she didn't know who the doctor was. Even if that was possible, and I suppose there are instances in which someone might not know the doctor delivering their baby, such as an emergency c section one could simply request their medical record to get the name, however Alice goes to her OBGYN and tells her the situation, leaving out the part about the girl being murdered. Alice promised she isn't going to sue anyone and she wouldn't force her daughter (who is supposedly dead) to come live with her, as if the court doesn't decide that kind of thing, I mean come on! The OB looks into things and calls Alice with the name and contact info of the doctor who delivered her baby. At this point I just couldn't read any further. There were so many plot holes and ridiculous actions from every character, my brain couldn't dumb itself down enough to read any further. I have a few other books by this author on my to read list, I really hope they aren't as bad as this book. I wish I could give this zero stars but that is not an option.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2017
The worst book I have ever had the displeasure of reading.
I was stuck reading this book on a long flight with no wifi. I should've just stared at the seat in front of me, as I feel dumber just by having finished this mess. While the story line could have been interesting, it reads like a kindergarten book. See Jane run. That's what this was. Short, clipped conversations and the plot was an absolute mess. All over the place, and the ending?! Did the "author" run out of time? It wrapped up from murders and conspiracies to "The end" in one paragraph. I can never get those hours of my life back and I suspect it will take days for my brain to power up again. I want to scratch my eyeballs out.
I was stuck reading this book on a long flight with no wifi. I should've just stared at the seat in front of me, as I feel dumber just by having finished this mess. While the story line could have been interesting, it reads like a kindergarten book. See Jane run. That's what this was. Short, clipped conversations and the plot was an absolute mess. All over the place, and the ending?! Did the "author" run out of time? It wrapped up from murders and conspiracies to "The end" in one paragraph. I can never get those hours of my life back and I suspect it will take days for my brain to power up again. I want to scratch my eyeballs out.
March 15, 2017
Bad. Just bad.
Mildly interesting to start, but the writing itself was just bad. The whole premise of the cop doing anything and everything that Alice told him to was ridiculous. Agreeing to wire taps? Saying he'd think about putting surveillance cameras in someone's home? At points, I truly believed that Alice was the only character and this whole thing was in her head, but even that was stupid.
The conversations throughout the book were stilted and silly. None of them made any sense. People Alice questioned gave up answers to her like she herself was a cop.
No real questions were answered that you didn't know early on. A twin? Completely contrived.
Everyone gave up info after lying for about two minutes. Vera's father was a spy, yet
Mildly interesting to start, but the writing itself was just bad. The whole premise of the cop doing anything and everything that Alice told him to was ridiculous. Agreeing to wire taps? Saying he'd think about putting surveillance cameras in someone's home? At points, I truly believed that Alice was the only character and this whole thing was in her head, but even that was stupid.
The conversations throughout the book were stilted and silly. None of them made any sense. People Alice questioned gave up answers to her like she herself was a cop.
No real questions were answered that you didn't know early on. A twin? Completely contrived.
Everyone gave up info after lying for about two minutes. Vera's father was a spy, yet
February 26, 2017
This might be the most ridiculous book I have ever read. An insanely convoluted plot and dialogue like a bad episode of Dragnet. For some reason the main character cannot tell the truth to anyone and is constantly changing her story on the fly. In spite of that I had to finish it. It was like a train wreck and as bad as the book was nothing prepared me for the ending. I kept picturing a ten year old banging away on an old word processor. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this.
March 12, 2017
This book was truly painful to read and was very reminiscent of a 4th grader learning to write dialog. The story is ridiculous and I think even the "author" got to the point of just wanting to be done with the whole mess and so he finished it up with a sloppy bow. This was a free read because I'm a Kindle Unlimited customer but it came at a price - the couple of hours of my life that I'll never get back from wasting on this book.
February 4, 2017
Not very suspenseful
This book read like a boring work colleague talking about her summer vacation. No character development, unbelievable interactions with police, ridiculous ending. There was absolutely no emotion or insight into anyone in this story. It seemed more like an outline than an actual novel.
This book read like a boring work colleague talking about her summer vacation. No character development, unbelievable interactions with police, ridiculous ending. There was absolutely no emotion or insight into anyone in this story. It seemed more like an outline than an actual novel.
February 5, 2017
Horrible, reads like a childs book. Totally unbelievable. No suspense ending was predictable. Wil never read anything from this so called writer ever. Total waste of my time and money.
Worse book I have read in a long time. No story no suspense read like a child's book. Horrible, waste of my time.
Worse book I have read in a long time. No story no suspense read like a child's book. Horrible, waste of my time.
January 11, 2018
Well, it was different
This book was good in it's own way, just oddly written. I kept reading because I wanted to know what had happened to Alice's daughter. Just to much of it was unlikely. Alice basically telling the police what to do and then going along with whatever she said....yeah, that would never really happen. Again, interesting but just not likely
This book was good in it's own way, just oddly written. I kept reading because I wanted to know what had happened to Alice's daughter. Just to much of it was unlikely. Alice basically telling the police what to do and then going along with whatever she said....yeah, that would never really happen. Again, interesting but just not likely
January 31, 2017
Childish Writing
This book is made up of very short sentences so that the whole thing reads like an interrogation. I'm afraid there was no suspense here for me. One thing in its favour was that the spelling and grammar was good.
This book is made up of very short sentences so that the whole thing reads like an interrogation. I'm afraid there was no suspense here for me. One thing in its favour was that the spelling and grammar was good.
March 19, 2017
A Waste
This was a poorly written book. I felt like I was reading a movie or TV script with poor dialogue. There were some interesting twists towards the end. Also the layout was poor. Two books in one with the teaser chapters for a third in the middle of the book.
This was a poorly written book. I felt like I was reading a movie or TV script with poor dialogue. There were some interesting twists towards the end. Also the layout was poor. Two books in one with the teaser chapters for a third in the middle of the book.
July 4, 2017
This is one of the most ridiculous books I have ever read. I would never have finished it, except I listened to it as an audio book while I was doing meaningful things! Don't waste your time!
January 16, 2018
The only reason I kept reading was because each chapter made me wonder. Maybe knowing how law enforcement really works is what drove me crazy how the story kept going deeper into unrealistic ways.
May 22, 2018
horribly written, totally unbelievable.
October 8, 2017
Interesting idea, flat execution
The initial premise is intriguing but the writing lets it down on every level. Dialogue is stiff,with everyone sounding identical--as if they're all roughly 14 years old. The main character, her boyfriend, and the chief detective lack any unique personality traits, and everyone gives up information without hesitation. All the heroine (who, small spoiler alert, is a suspect herself) has to do is ask the detective and he willingly gives her details of the investigation, traces phone numbers for her, gives her the IDs and home addresses for these phone owners, tells her where other witnesses live... on and on. Then there's the issue of hypnotism and multiple personality disorder (as the cops call it) being treated like everyday likely solutions, the willingness of the boyfriend to go along with every strange request the protagonist makes of him, the dull, robotic sentence structure, and a spectacularly farfetched ending. So... it's a shame, really, because the premise lends itself to some potentially fascinating and dramatic turns, but there's not a single emotional or even thrilling moment--a disappointment in a book about mothers and daughters, brutal murders (not all of which are explained) and numerous revelations. I hope for better things from the author.
The initial premise is intriguing but the writing lets it down on every level. Dialogue is stiff,with everyone sounding identical--as if they're all roughly 14 years old. The main character, her boyfriend, and the chief detective lack any unique personality traits, and everyone gives up information without hesitation. All the heroine (who, small spoiler alert, is a suspect herself) has to do is ask the detective and he willingly gives her details of the investigation, traces phone numbers for her, gives her the IDs and home addresses for these phone owners, tells her where other witnesses live... on and on. Then there's the issue of hypnotism and multiple personality disorder (as the cops call it) being treated like everyday likely solutions, the willingness of the boyfriend to go along with every strange request the protagonist makes of him, the dull, robotic sentence structure, and a spectacularly farfetched ending. So... it's a shame, really, because the premise lends itself to some potentially fascinating and dramatic turns, but there's not a single emotional or even thrilling moment--a disappointment in a book about mothers and daughters, brutal murders (not all of which are explained) and numerous revelations. I hope for better things from the author.
October 28, 2018
Spoiler Alert (Though Minor)
Out of the four book series, I read only the first. The plot was predictable in the extreme. The characters were annoying and malleable in an in realistic way. AND, most irritating, this guy cannot portray a woman in a realistic way AT ALL. He has her pack like a man, do first think after, another male trait, ad nauseam. She doesn't give a damn if David is jeopardized by the virus she implanted which could cost him everything. Nor is THAT issue ever resolved. Bahhumbug. The kind of tech David deals with could ultimately be countered by the nation/s these jokers worked for. I just gave up on this author after the 1st book.
Out of the four book series, I read only the first. The plot was predictable in the extreme. The characters were annoying and malleable in an in realistic way. AND, most irritating, this guy cannot portray a woman in a realistic way AT ALL. He has her pack like a man, do first think after, another male trait, ad nauseam. She doesn't give a damn if David is jeopardized by the virus she implanted which could cost him everything. Nor is THAT issue ever resolved. Bahhumbug. The kind of tech David deals with could ultimately be countered by the nation/s these jokers worked for. I just gave up on this author after the 1st book.
April 12, 2019
Did not finish
This is the first time I have tried to read a book so bad that I could not finish it. I felt that it had a good premise but was jus constructed poorly. In the first chapter I was left confused by the poor language and writing. By the third chapter I thought my eyes were bleeding. The language used was so phony and there was so much unnecessary detail. The points where the main character was thinking their thoughts was confusing. Basically my advice is to move on and try something else. Even for free I feel like I was cheated on this one.
This is the first time I have tried to read a book so bad that I could not finish it. I felt that it had a good premise but was jus constructed poorly. In the first chapter I was left confused by the poor language and writing. By the third chapter I thought my eyes were bleeding. The language used was so phony and there was so much unnecessary detail. The points where the main character was thinking their thoughts was confusing. Basically my advice is to move on and try something else. Even for free I feel like I was cheated on this one.
August 28, 2023
Some of the worst writing I’ve ever come across
Not only was this never seen by an editor, the writer never took the time to do his research. The characters were so poorly developed they were like cardboard. Also, the medical professionals in the first 25 pages (that’s all I could stomach reading) would have called security or the cops the way the conversations went. There’s no way any police detective would have had those conversations with the lead character. And the boyfriend agreeing to her crazy plans was just plain dumb.
Not only was this never seen by an editor, the writer never took the time to do his research. The characters were so poorly developed they were like cardboard. Also, the medical professionals in the first 25 pages (that’s all I could stomach reading) would have called security or the cops the way the conversations went. There’s no way any police detective would have had those conversations with the lead character. And the boyfriend agreeing to her crazy plans was just plain dumb.
February 10, 2021
The idea of this book, is great! It’s what caught my attention. But there is no suspense, poorly written, and I made myself finish it just to pretty much get the outcome of the book. I just wish the journey to the end was written better. Not a fan of this authors writing. It showed a clip of another book by the same author, and the writing was the same. Likes it’s just hurrying up to get to the point.
October 6, 2021
Crime Noir
At first, when I started reading, it was confusing with no sense of time. Not to mention, it sounded like Dragnet on speed. getting further into the story, I realized how bizarre and twisted it was. A first rate thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. Recommend to read again.
At first, when I started reading, it was confusing with no sense of time. Not to mention, it sounded like Dragnet on speed. getting further into the story, I realized how bizarre and twisted it was. A first rate thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. Recommend to read again.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews