The Child Finder

In her sophomore novel, Denfeld (The Enchanted) has created a glittering gem of a story—part mystery, part fairy tale, and all white-knuckled, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Set in the snow-choked world of Oregon's Skookum National Forest, Denfeld's tale revolves around the work of Naomi, an investigator known as "the Child Finder" who helps families track down their missing children. Calm, methodical, and determined, Naomi is single-minded in her pursuit of those lost because she was once a lost girl, too. As the book opens, she is meeting with the parents of Madison Culver, who disappeared three years before during a family trip to the forest to cut down a Christmas tree. Many have written off Madison for dead, but Naomi is willing to consider alternatives—even though the search causes her to remember long-lost scenes from her own tragic past. As the story alternates between Naomi's voice and that of a "snow child" who believes that she is living in a fairy tale, readers will be drawn in by Denfeld's lyrical prose and undone by the brutal reality that Naomi uncovers, just beneath the snowy forest floor.