Safe and Sound

If you enjoy gripping, tense and atmospheric novels with well-drawn characters (as one does), you need to read Laura McHugh. I've been a fan of hers since reading her previous books The Weight of Blood and What's Done in Darkness and now she's back with a new suspense read.

Safe and Sound is her upcoming book that centres around two sisters - Amelia and Kylee - who are eager to escape their small town and the hardships of their childhood as soon as possible. The mysterious loss of their much-loved cousin Grace six years prior continues to haunt the girls and from the meagre clues, it looks like teenage Grace was abducted and did her best to save her younger cousins. 

Amelia and Grace start to dig into Grace's disappearance before they leave their small town forever and unearth the dark underbelly of Beaumont, Missouri and secrets Grace had been keeping. [Please note that there is subject matter that could be triggering for some readers]

Told by the POVs of Grace, Amelia and Kylee, readers will be pulled into this emotionally charged and haunting story with its small-town Ozark vibe, its cast of complex characters.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Laura McHugh

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Penguin Random House

First Published: April 23, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: Six years after their cousin vanished from their home while they were sleeping, two sisters set out to learn the truth behind what happened—even if it puts their own lives in danger—in this haunting thriller from the internationally bestselling author of What's Done in Darkness

In a town no one ever leaves, there are only so many places to hide.

As kids, Amelia and Kylee were found unharmed in their upstairs bedroom the night their teenage cousin Grace, who was babysitting them, vanished from the farmhouse in Beaumont, Missouri, leaving only a smear of blood on a door. Scrappy and driven, Grace had been on the verge of escaping their dead-end town, the first in their family to go to college instead of getting married and going to work at the meatpacking plant. Her disappearance is a warning to any local girl who dared hope for better.

Now, as their own high school graduation looms, Amelia and Kylee dream about getting out of Beaumont, but the likelihood of that happening seems as low as that of Grace being found. When human remains are discovered in town, the sisters think they finally know who took Grace—but as they dig deeper into her past, they unearth long-buried secrets and a growing list of suspects.

Amelia and Kylee vow to find Grace, dead or alive. But as they draw closer to the truth and slip deeper into danger, they question how far someone would go to put a woman in her place, or to cover up a crime. The answer is worse than they could have imagined, and in the end, it won’t just be Grace they’re trying to save—they’ll have to fight for their lives.