Wonderland

Why have I let this book languish on my bookshelves? I have owned this book for quite some time but finally picked it up and was drawn into the story and setting immediately.

The story centres around a popular amusement park in a small coastal town. It's a fun and magical place for visitors and the town's main employer. It brings thrills and chills ... and murder when a mutilated body is found at the base of the famous ferris wheel.

Enter Vanessa Castro, the new deputy police chief who brings her two kids and her own dark past and emotional baggage to the small town to start over. She's fierce and flawed and soon learns how much influence and power the amusement park and its CEO hold over the town.

This story has a great sinister vibe with a frightening clown house, hidden underground tunnel, creepy workers, police cover-ups, and missing young men, oh my!

Tense, twisty and fast-paced, the story has a large cast (which were easy to keep track of) and I loved the sinister vibe and the fantastic cover art that give a hearty nod to the nostalgic feel of old-school amusement parks.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Jennifer Hillier

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: Trade Paperback, personal copy

Publisher: Gallery Books

First Published: October 5, 2015

Read: July 20-27, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads: Fans of Chelsea Cain and Lisa Gardner will devour this edgy thriller about the gruesome secrets hidden beneath a small-town amusement park. From the author of "Creep, Freak, "and "The Butcher, "Jennifer Hillier's "fine knack for creating hideous killers" ("Booklist") is vividly on display.

"Welcome to Wonderland." By day, it's a magical place boasting a certain retro charm. Excited children, hands sticky with cotton candy, run frenetically from the Giant Octopus ride to the Spinning Sombrero, while the tinkling carnival music of the giant Wonder Wheel--the oldest Ferris wheel in the Pacific Northwest--fills the air. But before daybreak, an eerie feeling descends. Maybe it's the Clown Museum, home to creepy wax replicas of movie stars and a massive collection of antique porcelain dolls. Or maybe it's the terrifyingly real House of Horrors. Or...maybe it's the dead, decaying body left in the midway for all the Wonder Workers to see.

Vanessa Castro's first day as deputy police chief of Seaside, Washington, is off to a bang. The unidentifiable homeless man rotting inside the tiny town's main tourist attraction is strange enough, but now a teenage employee--whose defiant picture at the top of the Wonder Wheel went viral that same morning--is missing. As the clues in those seemingly disparate crimes lead her down a mysterious shared path of missing persons that goes back decades, she suspects the seedy rumors surrounding the amusement park's dark history might just be true. She moved to Seaside to escape her own scandalous past, but has she brought her family to the center of an insidious killer's twisted game? Acclaimed author Jennifer Hillier's bone-chilling thriller is masterful and fast-paced, hurtling toward a shocking, bloody conclusion.