Somebody's Daughter by David Bell is about a man who is roped in to save a child that may be his. Michael Frazier was having an enjoyable dinner with his wife, Angela, and the last thing he expected was his ex-wife, Erica, showing up. He hasn’t seen or talked to her in the last ten years since they divorced.
Erica is desperate for Michael’s help. Her ten-year-old daughter, Felicity, is missing and Erica claims Michael is the father. Michael is unsure because Erica never mentioned anything about a child and he feels that she is lying to him so he feels obligated to help her.
Michael is hesitant to follow Erica into the dark of the night but he is unwilling to turn his back to a child who might be in danger. As Michael follows Erica into the darkness of the night, he realizes that there are secrets and lies from the past decade unraveling that might put his new family in danger. He doesn’t know who he can trust and who else is hiding secrets from him.
The book was narrated from multiple perspectives: Michael; Angela; and one of the detectives on the case, Detective Griffin. The book was fast paced and had a lot of twists and turns. However, I felt the book left a lot to be desired and seemed a bit clunky, in that the book introduces a lot of twists and side stories about secrets from the last decade but none of them are really fleshed out. One of the side stories questions the paternity of the missing girl but even in the end, they never really tell us who the father is. There is another subplot where Erica stole the baby but nothing comes from that and the two characters just faded out. I felt like that the author just threw a bunch of random possibilities to keep the reader guessing but failed to say this is what really happened.
I questioned a lot of the characters’ intelligence because they did things that I wonder why they thought they were good ideas. When Michael left Angela at home, she was going crazy thinking of the different things that could go wrong. Her mother in law, Gail, offers to come over and keep her company. Angela had seen a strange man stalking their house and they both ended up inviting that stranger into their house. The stranger was aggressive and then started searching their house and taking their phones hostage. Eventually, Angela leaves with this person willingly even though she is terrified and her husband doesn’t know where she is. I don’t know if any rational person would let a stranger into my house when their spouse’s supposed child went missing and then that person takes my phone.
I felt like the book was a slow build with the short chapters that were alternating narratives between the characters. It did make the story seem like it was fast paced but sometimes I wanted to read more about what was going on in the current arc for a particular chapter. I felt the ending came out of nowhere and it wasn’t something I expected. I felt like the author could have edited the book and made it a bit more focused and I’d have enjoyed the book a lot more. If you like suspenseful thrillers with twists and turns, you might enjoy this book.
