About the Book

A missing child tears a family apart in this switchback roller coaster of a psychological thriller that builds to a final, jaw-dropping twist, perfect for fans of Jennifer Hillier and Lisa Lutz.

On the surface, Sonia and Graham Starr were a glamorous couple: She, the sleek entrepreneur; he, the boyishly handsome painter with an irrepressible zest for life. They had everything money can buy and the one thing it can’t—a precious, precocious four-year-old named Roxie. But when Roxie disappears into the Pacific Ocean on a perfect August afternoon, their world crumbles around them.

Months later, Roxie’s twenty-one-year-old former nanny, plagued by guilt and confusion, returns to the Starrs’ beach house on the “American Riviera,” the rarefied stretch of land around Santa Barbara where the mountains meet the sea. Her first night back, she gazes out at the sand, only to see a child who bears a striking resemblance to Roxie. When she calls out, the child runs away.

Colleen never believed that Roxie, who was afraid of the surf, would run into the ocean on her own. Now, she is determined to get to the truth, even if it means facing her greatest fears.

The Girl on the Beach asks us who we trust when we can’t trust ourselves.

Review

The Girl on the Beach is the kind of psychological thriller that makes you question everything you think you know. One sunny afternoon, 4-year-old Roxie Starr vanishes into the Pacific Ocean. Her disappearance breaks apart the Starr family leaving unanswered questions, guilt and grief that seem to have affected their lives.

After months of not being able to relinquish her burden of guilt, their former nanny, Colleen returns to the beach house where everything happened trying to work out her uncertainty. When she sees a little girl on the beach who looks like Roxie, her whole world flips upside down. Was it a coincidence or proof that what everyone believed about Roxie’s disappearance is completely wrong?

From there, the secrets start stacking up, and Colleen finds herself pulled into a labyrinth of memory, suspicion, and buried truths. The more she digs for answers, the more she wonders if she could trust the people around her or her own mind.

Told from a dual timeline, this is a twisty, unsettling read that keeps shifting beneath your feet. Just when you think you’ve figured out what happened to Roxie, the story throws another curveball. When I say a curveball, you won’t see it coming.

And that ending? Jaw-dropping. I truly honestly had to put the book down because I thought my mind was mixed up. There’s no way to have predicted what happened and I’m still thinking about it. The book had a slow simmer, but when it starts to get hot, it becomes a page turner.

If you love psychological thrillers filled with missing children, unreliable perceptions, family secrets, and twists that make you rethink everything you just read, The Girl on the Beach deserves a spot on your TBR.

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