So Much Pretty

By Cara Hoffman

From the book jacket:

When she disappeared from her rural hometown, Wendy White was a sweet, family-oriented girl, a late bloomer who’d recently moved out on her own, with her first real boyfriend and a job waiting tables at the local tavern. It happens all the time – a woman goes missing, a family mourns, and the case remains unsolved.

Just my opinion:

This is a difficult book to describe. It is intriguing, a fascinating study of murder and edge-of-your-seat interesting. On the other hand, it’s also a book that deals with the feelings of the victims and their families and friends and makes you feel sympathetic and angry at the same time. How could these horrific crimes occur and why doesn’t anyone look at reason to solve them?

Although the story revolves around the people in the town where Wendy disappears and is later found dead, it’s also about the new reporter on the scene who seems to be the only one who sees the obvious. As she argues with the law and digs deeper and deeper to uncover the truth, she finds herself caught up in the politics of small town life. Why don’t the police look closer at the person who seems to have had the opportunity to commit this crime? Why don’t they question his motives and follow the clues he left behind.

And why is everyone trying to blame the victim and refusing to believe the facts?

I really enjoyed this book. It did bog down a bit in the middle, but as the story progressed, it picked back up again and I found myself getting more and more into the book. It’s well-written and interesting, as well as a pleasure to read.

Some favorite passages from the book:

There was a renaissance of strangeness going on in the neighborhood.

There’s nothing quite like a hellhole to raise kids in.

I honestly believed articles in the newspaper could change the way the world worked. And that meant I could change the way the world worked. And that’s not the healthiest thought for a human being to have.

A man can only take so much pretty walking back and forth in front of him.

No women’s clinic or search or prayer or self-defense class is going to prevent these things. When the kinds of men who do these things are eliminated completely or live in fear for their lives – not just their time or livelihood – if they act, when that happens, we’ll have progress. And no sooner.