Official Review: Sierra Girls by Richard Ewald

[Enigma]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Sierra Girls" by Richard Ewald.]

Sierra Girls is a thriller about a series of abductions of young girls in the Sierra mountain range. Michelle is the latest victim.

The story isn’t about working out who the perpetrator is. It’s about the why, how and the victim’s attempt to escape.

We get to see the relationship between the MC and her father at the start of the book, before she abducted. But we don’t get a good feel about Michelle until later though.

The description of the victim’s molestation was very well done. In a drug fuelled daze she see a totally different image, but the author’s very cleverly describes it so the reader knows what’s really going on.

Quote: ‘What a rude Pepsi can, she thought as she tumbled headlong into the rabbit hole.’

This isn’t a typical FBI/CSI thriller. This novel is about friends and family of the victim coming together and searching for the lost child. And doing a better job than the police do. So there is more than one detective in this story. The team consists of the father, a monk, a teacher, the best friend and her mother (who is also a reporter.) The police take a back seat in this thriller and I find that very refreshing.

Now what I don’t like is that there are too many inconsistencies. Maybe the author did this deliberately to move the plot forward but for me it doesn’t work.

For instance:

Michelle is the fourth abducted child in this area and yet the police don’t connect them. All the missing girl’s mothers have died, but again, no connection from the police.

And it doesn’t seem realistic to me that the twelve-year-old girl wakes up naked, cold and hungry in a locked room and doesn’t scream for help or bang on the door. There’s not a lot of emotion coming from this girl. She understands what has happened, what’s going to happen but she’s almost stone. She’s smart, strong but she’s still a lost and frightened child.

So the perp has gone to all the trouble to kidnap and lock this girl away, his plan is to rape and then kill her. So why would he suddenly go hunting those that are hunting him and leave his prize, alone? I know the author has written it like this to move the plot along, but just isn’t realistic.

There is a video of the perp and the victim at a gas station and has been aired on TV for all to see and yet no one on the team hears about this.

What really doesn’t sit well with me if the way the author points the finger at the church. Such at this one part; the Orthodox priest should have been the first person suspected because of the goings on in the Catholic Church? It’s as though he’s saying that all priest are suspected paedophiles. And he makes this point at least three times. Also there is a nun that has sex when she was seven (she later plays a bigger role in the story.)

I like the ending. Justice is served. It’s good that the author stays with the original plot and keeps the police out of it. Even at the end it’s the team that find and rescue Michelle. Yes, a very satisfying ending.

The book started off as an easy read, but by the middle the writing started getting flowery. Now there’s nothing wrong with that kind of writing, Stephen King is famous for it. I just prefer an easy read. Many enjoy more descriptive passages. I just feel it ruins the flow and prefer to stick to the plot.

This always seemed to happen when the author is back with Michelle. The author goes through every little detail of what she is doing, although there is not much emotion from her.

Even with these inconsistencies, Sierra Girls is a well-written, exciting thriller. I rate it 3 out of 4 stars.

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