Description: Three years ago Madison Culver went missing at the age of five while looking for a Christmas tree with her family. Private investigator Naomi Cottle continues the investigation and believes that Madison's disappearance can only be the result of an abduction. Naomi's personal journey from foster child to adulthood parallels her search for Madison, and as her fears and sources of determination come to light, the narrative also dips into Madison's mind, allowing readers to experience her terrifying ordeal at the hands of her captor.
Brief description:
Rene Denfeld is a bestselling author, licensed death row investigator, and foster and adoptive mother. She is the author of the novels The Enchanted, The Child Finder, The Butterfly Girl, and Sleeping Giants. Her novels have won numerous awards, including the French Prix du Premier Roman Étranger, and in 2017 The New York Times named her for heroism of the year. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Review Quotes:
"A darkly luminous story of resilience and the deeply human instinct for survival, for love. Blending the magical thinking of childhood, of fairy tales, dreams, memories and nightmares, The Child Finder is a terrifying and ultimately uplifting novel that demands to be consumed and then once inside you-lingers." - A.M. Homes, author of May We Be Forgiven
"Rene Denfeld's novel The Child Finder renders atrocity with depth and heart--a compassion made even more credible by her career as an investigator in death-penalty cases... The Child Finder's moral lesson is not new--that hope and humanity can be found in even the darkest places. But the extent to which Denfeld practices that belief is deeply touching, if not even remarkable." - Willamette Week
"A hauntingly beautiful, chilling novel by a real-life badass heroine... Denfeld brings [her protagonist] to life with precise, lyrical prose. While the whole book reads like a fairytale for adults, Naomi herself is fully realized and deeply human." - CrimeReads
"Aptly unclassifiable, Denfeld's compulsively readable second novel calls on elements of horror, mystery, fairy tales, and even romance to explore legacies of violence and the resilience of the most vulnerable among us." - Booklist
"A chillingly good read that will stay with you long after you close the book." - BookPage
"At times haunting, at times devastating.... Captivating read." - Bustle
"In the necessary and uncomfortable places where Rene Denfeld locates her haunting fiction, the lines between victim and perpetrator can be painfully blurry.... Giving voice to those who are metaphorically or even literally voiceless, Rene Denfeld reminds us that consequences continue, aftermath continues -- yet we must somehow find ways of holding on to threads of hard-won hope." - Elizabeth Rosner, San Francisco Chronicle
"It's stunning. From the first page... we are in a strange, forbidding territory.... I couldn't put this book down." - The Globe and Mail
"It's 'Deliverance' encased in ice... Denfeld's novel is indeed loaded with suspense, its resonance comes from its surprising tilt towards storytelling restraint, a rarity in this typical crackling genre. Elegiac, informative and disquieting... The novel gallops to a suitably heart-racing finish." - New York Times Book Review
"Rene Denfeld has a gift for shining bright light in dark places. The Child Finder is a gorgeous, haunting gem of a novel. Raw and real yet wrapped in a fairy tale, as lovely and as chilling as the snow." - Erin Morgenstern, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus
"Intense.... Innovative... Heartbreaking, surprising.... The conclusion will leave readers breathless." - Publishers Weekly
"A glittering gem of a story--part mystery, part fairy tale, and all white-knuckled, edge-of-your-seat thriller... 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." - Library Journal, starred review
"My lord--what a book. The Child Finder is nothing short of a literary miracle. Part American fairy tale, part page-turning mystery, part love story, Rene Denfeld guides her readers into desperate, dark horrors of the American psyche where, miraculously, she discovers hope, beauty, heroism and redemption." - Nicholas Butler, bestselling author of Shotgun Lovesongs and The Hearts of Men
"Gut-wrenching, its compassion goes a long way toward healing readers' aching hearts." - Shelf Awareness