The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey

I really loved this book.  A true page turner, I read it all in one sitting.  

Lourey started it out with some information about real-life murders in the St. Cloud, Minnesota area from the 1970s  And the whole thing had such a ring of truth that although it's fiction, I felt like it crossed over into my genre, true crime for survivors.

Because within the story there's so much truth about the way things were for girls like me and my murdered friend high-school, Wendy Huggy.  Things were so different back then, I don't know if people who grew up in later decades can imagine.  CPS wasn't invented until 1974, for example.  But people really just left kids to their own devices back then, even young, preadolescents.  And we got preyed upon, and nobody cared.

There's so much synchronicity to my own life in this story, including one of the parents becoming a hoarder after their marriage is destroyed by an affair.  One of the children gets attacked by one of the parents as a result, too.  All of that is very complicated and was very real for me, too.

I also really loved this author's writing style.  She really has a way with words and can turn a phrase.  I found each of the characters very realistic and well-fleshed-out.  

The plot twists weren't all that twisty.  I was able to figure them out.  But that's okay; it means the foreshadowing was well-done.  The suspense was believable.  The whole book made sense in a good way.  It's a very tough book, especially if you lived through that era as I did.

I very much enjoyed the resolution for the mothers.  Not sure how realistic that is, but I would love it if that's the way things worked out.  And I'm afraid things really almost never go that way for the protagonist, either, that she takes that cold and clear a look at her father.  But it did my heart some good to have the book work out that way.

All together I really loved this book.  I found it very credible, speaking as someone who was from not-too-distant a time and place.  The writing was excellent.  Compelling story with as happy an ending as you can have under the circumstances.  And the resolution wasn't a cheap shot, either.  It made sense and held people accountable.