Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can’t forget. They’ve decided to never tell a soul. But their vow is tested when their friend disappears—the second girl to vanish in a week. And yet the authorities are reluctant to investigate.
Heather is terrified that the missing girls are connected to what she and Brenda stumbled upon that night. Desperately searching for answers on her own, she learns that no one in her community is who they seem to be. Not the police, not the boys she met at the quarry, not even her parents. But she can’t stop digging because she knows those girls are in danger.
She also knows she’s next.
Jess Lourey writes about secrets. She's the Amazon Charts bestselling Edgar, Agatha, and Lefty-nominated, Anthony and Thriller Award winning author of crime fiction, nonfiction, children's books, YA adventure, and magical realism. She is a retired professor of creative writing and sociology, a recipient of The Loft's Excellence in Teaching fellowship, a Psychology Today blogger, and a TEDx presenter (check out her TEDx Talk for the surprising inspiration behind her first published novel). When not leading women's writing retreats, reading, traveling, or fostering kittens, you can find her drafting her next story.
My Thoughts
Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey is the first book I have read of hers. To say the least this was a definitely creepy book. At the beginning, the author goes into a bit of the history of St Cloud Minnesota and the serial killer cases that are currently unsolved.
This story is based on real events and primarily narrated by teenager Heather. She and her best friend Brenda do what most teenagers do in a typical summer. Go to each other's houses, party at the quarries and just hang with their best friends.
The town has a series of tunnels under a group of houses and Heather and her friends spend time down there. One day, at a door, they see something that is abhorrent to them, especially Heather. What she sees, she can't unsee as it involves her friend Maureen. Right after that Maureen goes missing. She isn't the only one, Beth, a waitress has disappeared. Some of the chapters are narrated by Beth so we know what has happened to her, but not by whom.
There are a lot of strange family dynamics involving Heather, her 12-year-old sister. Their mother is a bit on the psychotic side, doing destructive and dangerous things especially to Heather.
A lot of the narration reminded me of the 70's I grew up in, not the serial killer part but the music. Heather is a drummer in a band that includes a few of her friends. When the band Cream was mentioned, I perked right up. They were one of my favorite bands.
Now back to the story, I found this story to be really creepy, the descriptions of a few of the men that were dangerous, could one of them be the killer? I think I had it figured out pretty early in the book. This book definitely held my attention, read it in a few sittings. The idea that Pantown, a neighborhood in St. Cloud, where the story takes place, seems like a typical small neighborhood in the 70's. It is anything but, secrets abound among the teenagers and adults alike.
There are actually tunnels and some of the homes that were built for the employees of the Pan Motor Company still exist. I know a lot of towns in the US have a tunnel system, the town I live in has one that went from a home of the owner of a local brewery to the brewery itself.
To me the other part of the story is the quarries themselves. The description of the depth of the water is especially creepy to me. Since I don't swim, makes sense why it is creepy. The quarries in Pantown are where the bodies of the missing girls were found. I like how the author used facts to flesh out the story.
I give the book 5 stars!
I received a copy of the book for review purposes only.
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