Daughter by Kate McLaughlin

This was recommended by another CT School Librarian.  The author is originally from Nova Scotia and now lives here. In addition, a good chunk of the story is set in NASCAR country--the areas around Charlotte and Raleigh.  Definite bonus points. 

Unfortunately, I didn't particularly care for the book.  It was very easy language, a quick Young Adult level read I finished in an afternoon.  But the plot was lacking.  This needed to be much longer and much more involved to be a fully fleshed out novel.  It read like the drafts of a Netflix or Prime series that was still in development.  

Scarlet is a typical teen in wealthy CT--upper middle class, white, attends private high school, smoked weed.  Single Mom is overprotective, but understandably as her husband/Scarlet's father took off when she was a baby and Mom has no other family left.

Except that is all a lie.  The FBI shows up and Scarlet learns she is "Baby Britney", the long lost daughter of a famous serial killer in North Carolina.  She has a ton of other family and her mother had a whole life she ran from to escape the media.  Scarlet/Britney's father is now dying of cancer and wants to see his daughter.  He promises to give up the names and locations of the rest of his victims in exchange.

Now, I thought at the beginning Scarlet would unearth some very important clue, or we'd learn the mother was actually the killer, or Scarlet herself would become a killer herself.  But, nothing happens.  There was no plot twist, no surprise, no...nothing.  It just was.  

Do not recommend.

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.