Review: The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying by Lauren Street

The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying (The Salazar Redwood Forest Thrillers, Book #1)

by Lauren Street

Release Date: May 14, 2024

2024 Sterling & Stone

Ebook ARC; 301 Page

ISBN: 978-1629553764

ASIN: B0D2SFZL16

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

Former military police officer Sam Salazar knows what it means to lose everything. After the death of her 5-year-old daughter, she moved to a secluded town in Northern California, surrounded by ancient Redwoods and twisting highways. She finds peace in the isolation.

Until a woman in Sam's Narcotics Anonymous group insists she’s been seeing her sister Dorothy around town. The same sister who died thirty years ago. And she’s desperate for Sam’s help.

Sam digs through layers of silence but uncovers no death certificate, grave, or body. Nothing seems right, and Sam’s determined to unearth the truth. But the small town has a dark side. The tight-knit community doesn’t like outsiders poking in their business.With every step closer to uncovering what happened to Dorothy, Sam must confront a haunting Is unearthing the truth a path to closure or a door to untold horrors?

My Thoughts

The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying is the first book in a new series featuring a very interesting heroine, one who lost her daughter several years ago and has moved to this isolated town in order to cope with her grief. Unfortunately, she finds herself in the midst of town politics and secrecy as she investigates a situation for a person for who no one else will help. The cast of characters is quite diverse and quirky and  although I enjoyed this story. and thought the plot was quite interesting, there were too many underlying threads happening at the same time, ones that will continue in future books. Because of this, I did find Same somewhat difficult to relate to at times, and the main mystery sometimes got relegated to the background due to the other things that were going on.

Even though I had difficulty relating to Sam as a main character at times, I still thought she was interesting; she has a background that is somewhat mysterious and only scarce details were given to the reader throughout the book although we were given some about her daughter.  Being married to a military man, I can relate to the periods of PTSD and what she was suffering so I definitely liked those aspects of the story and of her personality as it felt so real.  While she is definitely capable, she does have a tendency to act before thinking which gets her into trouble especially when investigating a town full of secrets, one in which its people can hold onto grudges for decades. I did cringe a couple of times at some of her actions and some of the things she said, but it certainly makes for good drama in the book. I liked how there were serious consequences for what she did however, as it upped the danger level in the story and I wasn't sure when I was reading if any of the main characters were going to make it through.

The best part of this book was its ending as it had a twist I didn't see coming.  The first part of the book moved along a bit slowly, but it is the first book in a series so I didn't mind too much as the author took the time to build up the town and its characters, slowly unveiling the seething underbelly that exists in all such places.  I did feel like the story line meandered a bit and didn't always focus on Beth's situation, setting up the story line for the second book. It made me realize that Beth's story is actually the weakest part of the book and the underlying political atmosphere and the secrets pacts from the top brass are propelling most of what is happening in this town. There is also Sam's friend at the trailer park, a person whom we actually discovered little throughout the story who seems to be at the center of a lot of things and I grew very suspicious of him as the story progressed.  There were a lot of little threads being developed, none of which were really explained, all being set up for future books. While that is fine, it does leave you with a sense of unfinished business at the end of the book.

Verdict

The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying was very different from what I expected, but in a good way. I pretty much read it in one sitting and found the political infighting to be quite fascinating, but that is something I really enjoy as I am interesting in political dynamics.  There were some good twists and turns in the story, some which caught me off guard. As the writing was solid, I am planning on reading the next book in this series to see what Sam gets into next.