Packing the burden of her past, Claire Campbell left her childhood home in the rearview decades ago. Despondent after the mysterious disappearance of her older sister and her parents' divorce, Claire escaped her traumatic past by moving to New York and launching a career as an investigative journalist, although she's currently unemployed and unfettered. A surprising phone call from her father concerning her mother forces Claire to return home to face the ghosts and guilt that have haunted her for decades. When an unexpected opportunity for seasonal work at Galloway Farms arises, Claire jumps at it with the recollection that her sister, Natalie, spent most of her time at the vineyard prior to her disappearance. Claire's desperation to retrace her sister's final footsteps drives her to take a closer look at the strange residents at Galloway's Farms. Shortly after arriving, Claire discovers an old diary written by the elderly vineyard's mistress hidden in her cabin, and she can't resist reading it. The emotional anguish and revelations that pour out of the diary stun Claire, confirming her suspicions that all is not right at this strange, creepy vineyard. Are the answers to what happened to her sister buried here? Claire's gut is telling her to run, but she can't leave without the answers she needs . . . even though remaining puts her own life in danger.
Forget Me Not is everything I love about a good mystery - sensuous, vibrant setting, tense, intertwined plot lines, authentic well-developed characters, and a mystery that chills you to the bone as you burn through pages seeking answers. Willingham does a brilliant job rendering the story through dual timelines - one from a frantic Claire in the present and the other from the past communicated through the pages of a young girl's diary. The tension driven pace is perfect, fed by a chilling undertone lurking on each page sounding warning bells with each chapter and revelation. A few different players, red herrings, are offered up for readers' consideration, and I was never quite sure who the real villain was until the shocking reveal.
Author Stacy Willingham's Forget Me Not just may be her best thriller yet! Days after finishing it, I can't get it out of my mind. Hauntingly beautiful and yet at the same time, dark and creepy, this is a story of family and souls lost and found, secrets that destroy, truths that kill. I highly recommend the audio version of this book as Narrators Karissa Vacker and Helen Laser deliver flawless performances escalating the chilling, urgent sense of malice prevalent throughout this story. Highly recommended to fans of mysteries and suspense thrillers.
With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
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