REVIEW: The Child Finder

The Child Finder
Author: Rene Denfeld

Naomi is The Child Finder. She's a private investigator who specializes in finding lost children. A little girl, Madison Culver, disappeared while on a trip into Skookum National Forest. She was with her parents and they were hunting for a Christmas tree. One second she was right there with them....and the next second she was just gone. Her parents searched for hours. Search teams scoured the area for days....she was never found. Three years later, the parents call Naomi. If anyone can find Madison, her body, or just some sort of sign of what happened to their little girl, it's The Child Finder. Why is Naomi so talented at finding lost little ones? She was once lost herself. She knows something happened to her as a child, but she has no memory of events before she was found wandering, naked. Some migrant workers dropped her off at a police station, and she was put into foster care. Naomi was once lost....and now she helps find the lost. Can she find little Madison?

This story is powerful and haunting. And not for the feint of heart. Warning: This book contains instances of child rape, abuse, and kidnapping. It is not described in graphic detail....but it is there. If that might be a trigger topic, or too much for a reader, it might be best to avoid this book. As a mother, I had a hard time reading this book. It's well written and suspenseful, but disturbing. If I had known beforehand that this story dealt with that level of abuse, I probably would not have read it. But -- that does not mean it isn't a good book. Some stories make a reader uncomfortable. Some stories hit where it hurts. Some stories are about truth that we don't want to acknowledge. That makes this a hard hitting, realistic story....not a bad book. If the subject of child kidnapping and abuse didn't make me uncomfortable....then I would have something to worry about.

There was one point in the book where I had an eyeroll moment. Naomi is talking about prior cases she worked. One was a kidnapping case where the girl was found alive. The girl's name was Elizabeth Wiley. Wiley? Badly veiled reference to Elizabeth Smart? I just felt that the name wasn't necessary....too melodramatic maybe? Or just a weird choice by the author. Or it could be I was already extremely uncomfortable with child rape references that the name choice just was an easy excuse to roll my eyes and put the book down for awhile.

All in all - as a mom this was a rough book to read. But, it is a well-written story of human strength, resilience and survival. Naomi brings light to the darkness.....her strength and determination lend hope to those broken by loss.

To find out more about the author and her books, check out her website: http://www.renedenfeld.com/