In 1961, eight-year-old Bear Van Laar disappears from a hike with his grandfather. He's never found. Fourteen years later, his thirteen-year-old sister Barbara disappears from the family-owned camp.

Using a timeline that skips backwards and forwards in time (sometimes confusingly), we're lead through what happened then, and the current investigation into the girl's disappearance.

There are a lot of secrets here. A lot of red herrings. Ultimately, it's a story about trust.

Fans of suspense thrillers might like the story line.

In my opinion, there were some extraneous characters in this story. They seemed important for a time, but really, they weren't at all important. It seems unnecessary to me to add a bunch of threads about people and then not be able to draw them all together by the conclusion.

I also felt that the ending was implausible and that there were a lot of unexplained events. Alice, Bear and Barbara's mother, is central to the story. The author spends a lot of time on her character. When "all is revealed," I still don't understand her. I think it would have been helpful to spend the preceding "Alice" chapters in a little more depth than was given to them.

Sit down and talk to the author to gain her perspective. I think it would be a great discussion. She's clearly got a lot going on with her writing. I'd be fascinated to hear what she has to say.

Is very popular right now! "Long Bright River" was recently made into a limited series.

I found the book very slow, especially in the beginning. The pace picked up, though. Judyta is my favorite character of them all.

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Created Oct 07, 2025 at 1:20pm • Submit your own review...