The Names of Dead Girls by Eric Rickstad

 

Eric Rickstad’s The Names of Dead Girls, the sequel to his 2014 book The Silent Girls, is a commanding, beautiful masterpiece and display is soon-to-be among his best work. ‘Girls’ is intense and gripping from the very first page, all the way to the last.

In a small town in Vermont, Rachel Rath knows that she is being watched, and she is positive that the man watching her is Ned Preacher, a serial rapist and murderer who killed her parents, but got out after serving only sixteen years by playing the system to get a lighter sentence.

Retired detective Frank Rath has tried to keep his niece safe every way he can – even if that means not telling her the whole truth about her parents’ murder. But Preacher keeps tormenting Frank over phone calls, playing mind games, and threatening Rachel. When the dead bodies of missing local girls start to appear, Frank, with Detective Sonja Test, must work to find the truth of these crimes, which they soon find to be darker and more twisted than they could have imagined.

This book is a page-turner, one that is virtually impossible to put down once you pick it up. Rickstad’s plot is dark and disturbing with twists that you will never see coming, only made better by his wonderfully developed, complex characters. You don’t want to miss this one.

Hear Eric Rickstad speak to us about ‘The Names of Dead Girls’ on our weekly podcast, Writer’s Bone.