Book Review: Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke

It’s funny – I find stories about true crime podcasts fascinating, but cannot actually listen to true crime podcasts. Ditto the DIY cold-case-solving websites. I’m fascinated by the concept of regular people – housewives and students and retirees and office workers and random everyday folks – crowd-sourcing solutions to problems that have stumped the “experts” in their relevant fields. I don’t have the patience (or stomach!) to do it myself, but am delighted that those that do have a way to feed their curiosity AND do good at the same time.

Amy Suiter Clarke’s tale, about a woman whose true crime cold-case podcast leads her into a world of trouble, is a delightfully entertaining one full of the darkness of evil men and the unexpected light of those who spend their days (whether by vocation or avocation) trying to bring them to justice. The story plays out somewhat predictably for the genre, but the writing is easy to fall into and the characterizations were well-developed to support the windy-twisty plot that travels back and forth in time and case studies. The Big Reveal wasn’t much of a revelation – I figured it out very early on, as I suspect most readers who have a tendency to pick up this type of book will – but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment at watching it unfold.

This was a darkly enjoyable tale and one that I tore through quickly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.