Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger on July 27, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / General, Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Women
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
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This was our September book for the Book Nook Buzz book club. This was a thriller that I had not read before. Our group really liked this one and thought this was a quick, easy read.
Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger is a tense and atmospheric thriller centered around FBI agent Nell Flynn, who returns to her hometown in Suffolk County for the first time in a decade. She is there to scatter her estranged father’s ashes after his unexpected death in a motorcycle accident. This homecoming is far from a sentimental reunion—Nell’s memories of the place are haunted by the brutal murder of her mother when she was just a child and the emotionally distant relationship she had with her father, a local police detective.
Nell has spent her adult life avoiding long-term connections, finding solace in her work as an investigator. She thrives on solitude and the rigor of solving cases, preferring to keep her emotions at arm’s length. But her plans to quickly settle her father’s affairs and leave Suffolk County behind for good are derailed when her father’s former partner, Lee Davis, asks her to assist in a grisly murder investigation involving two young women. As Nell digs into the case, she begins to uncover disturbing connections between the deaths and a possible serial killer.
The deeper she investigates, the more corruption she uncovers within the local police department. It becomes apparent that not only are some members of law enforcement complicit in covering up horrific crimes, but that her father himself might have been involved. The lingering question of whether her father had a hand in her mother’s murder surfaces, casting a dark shadow over Nell’s already complicated feelings about her past.
What stands out in Girls Like Us is the relentless tension and gritty realism. This is not a feel-good mystery where everything wraps up neatly. Nell is a complex, no-nonsense character who carries a heavy emotional burden, and the Suffolk County she returns to is a place filled with secrets and moral ambiguity. Alger does an excellent job of building suspense while exploring themes of family loyalty, trust, and the lengths to which people will go to protect their own.
This is a grim and intense story, yet it is gripping from start to finish. Nell’s emotional isolation and the dark subject matter might make this a tough read for some, but her strength and determination make her a compelling protagonist. I was always rooting for Nell. This storyline had my flipping pages to see how everything was going to play out. The plot and pace was well done.