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    The One I Left Behind
    The One I Left Behind
    The One I Left Behind
    Audiobook12 hours

    The One I Left Behind

    Written by Jennifer McMahon

    Narrated by Julia Whelan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The summer of 1985 changes Reggie’s life. An awkward thirteen-year-old, she finds herself mixed up with the school outcasts. That same summer, a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother, Vera, the most, Vera’s hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there’s no body and Neptune disappears.

    Now, twenty-five years later, Reggie is a successful architect who has left her hometown and the horrific memories of that summer behind. But when she gets a call revealing that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 2, 2013
    ISBN9780062204837
    The One I Left Behind
    Author

    Jennifer McMahon

    Jennifer McMahon is the author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Children on the Hill, Promise Not to Tell, and The Winter People. She lives in Florida with her partner, Drea. Visit her at Jennifer-McMahon.com or connect with her on Instagram @JenniferMcMahonWrites and Facebook @JenniferMcMahonBooks.

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    Reviews for The One I Left Behind

    4/5

    238 ratings39 reviews

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    • 5/5
      So many twists so many possible Killers. It kept me guessing.
    • 5/5
      Thrilling to the very end! Kept me guessing the entire time!
    • 3/5
      I really feel guilty giving a great man like Mr. Powell 3 stars on his book. He is a man of impeccable character and I would have voted for him for president. The book, however, is a self help book and there are dozens of other book that give advice close to what he is. The other problem for me was that I am 60 plus and was reading it because of how much I admire the man. I loved some of his stories but his tips on leadership and motivation are frankly not going to help me much at this point. This is a book for the young. I think the book covers a lot of what he says on his speaking engagement. Great guy, wrong audience.
    • 5/5
      This was one of the best books I've read in a long, long time.
    • 4/5
      Ending each chapter in a cliff hanger drove me wild, and kept me up reading into the wee hours of the morning.This is a story about 13 year old Reggie, It is the summer of 1985 and there is a serial killer called Neptune on the loose in a small town in Conneticut. He kidnaps and kills women, cuts off their right hand putting it for display out in the open and it isn’t until days later that the police find the rest of the victims body.Reggie’s wild and beautiful mother Vera is taken and when the police find her right hand, all hope is lost. They never do find her body though…what does this mean? Is she really dead? Is she in Cahoots with Neptune? Has her body just not been found? When Vera goes missing it throws Reggie’s life in to turmoil and she goes to live with her Aunt, Vera’s sister, years later after Reggie has made a new, yet troubled life for herself, her aunt calls her back home to tell her, well… I don’t want to spoil the ending for you. You will just have to read it for yourself to find out what makes Reggie rush home to hear what her aunt has to say.The story moves back and forth in time from Reggie as a child to Reggie as a troubled adult. The One I Left Behind is full of twists and turns and just when you think you have it figured out, you don’t. I had not read anything by Ms. McMahon before, so glad to make her aquantance and looking Forward to reading more from her in the future
    • 4/5

      I have pretty much love everything Jennifer McMahon has written. This was no different. The story grabs you right from the beginning and never really lets you go. I also really enjoy how her stories seem to always be just a bit different than anything else you read. I can’t say the ending was a complete surprise, but I was left guessing pretty much until the end and it was a quite an unexpected turn.
    • 3/5
      Interesting first half of book, which sets out the mystery. I really did not like the ending and found the characters reactions to some terrible events really flat and not believable. Examples: the trauma of having your mom kidnapped and the scenes around that. The horror of losing your hand. Overall I would say a middling 2.5.
    • 4/5
      Mystery novel about a serial killer that was never caught. Known for leaving the severed right hand on the doorstep of the police department "Neptune" has never been caught. His fourth victim's hand was delivered to the police but the body never found. Now Vera Dufrane, Neptune's last victim has been discovered alive after 20 years- her daughter's emotions running deep, runs to her mother's side to get the answers she desperately seeks. Quick read, keeps you guessing until the end.
    • 4/5
      This was not my first Jennifer McMahon book nor was it my favorite. That honor belongs to [The Winter People]...but it was one of the most devious of her books thus far. Her characters are so flawed that they become believable and unbelievable all at the same time. Because of that, you can’t stop reading. By the time you want out, you’re too far in and you need to know how it’s all going to turn out for the good or the bad. The subject of this one and the character of the Neptune Killer was just plain creepy but at the same time...mesmerizing. So if you choose to read this book... lock your doors...pull your drapes...and for goodness sake, leave the light on!
    • 4/5
      If you've read one book by McMahon, you've pretty much read them all. But that's not a bad thing. There's a lot of familiarity between book to book, but the plots and characters are never repetitive.
    • 3/5
      Give it an extra half star - I did have a few plot issues that kept this one from getting a higher rating.
    • 5/5
      "It seemed the cruelest thing a person could do—to invent hope where there was none." (Location 5832-5833)

      In The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon, Reggie Dufrane is a cutting edge green architect, but back in 1985 her only friends, Charlie and Tara, were two other social outcasts in Brighton Falls, Connecticut. 1985 was the year her mother, Vera, was abducted by the serial killer called "Neptune." Neptune would kidnap the woman and then leave her severed right hand in a milk carton on the steps of the police department. Five days later the woman's body would be discovered, nude, in some public place. Vera's hand was left by the killer, but her body was never found. Reggie grew up living with her aunt Lorraine, and left Brighton Falls right after high school, never returning.

      Chapters alternate between Reggie Dufrane in 1985, at age 13, and in 2010, 25 years later.

      Reggie's relationship with her mother was complex and Reggie may not remember everything exactly as it was. Her "earliest memory of her mother began with her mother balancing an egg on its end and ended with Reggie losing her left ear. (Location 318-319) Vera was likely an alcoholic, but most certainly she wasn't able to provide a stable home for her daughter without living at the family home with her sister. Reggie feels alienated and unloved, which is part of being 13, but certainly losing her mother at such a vulnerable time further influenced her development.

      Reggie "didn’t believe in clutter or in holding on to things that didn’t have significant meaning, so her bookcase held only the books that she referred to again and again, the ones that had influenced her: The Poetics of Space, A Pattern Language, The Timeless Way of Building, Design with Nature, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, as well as a small collection of nature guides. Tucked here and there among the books were Reggie’s other great source of inspiration: bird nests, shells, pinecones, interestingly shaped stones, a round paper wasp nest, milkweed pods, acorns, and beechnuts." (Location 260-265)

      "Reggie had always been a quiet kid, even with her own family, and part of the reason for this was that she never knew the right thing to say. Words didn’t come easily to her, they were stumbling blocks rather than lines of connection. And only later, after the fact, when she was replaying conversations in her head late at night, did the right words come—a cruel joke, too little, too late." (Location 1923-1926)

      Reggie had been getting phone calls for years that she attributed to Neptune.
      She’d been getting the calls for years, first at home, then college, then in every apartment and house she’d ever lived in. He never said a word. But she could hear him breathing, could almost feel the puffs of fetid moisture touch her good ear as he inhaled, then exhaled, each breath mocking her, saying, I know how to find you. And somehow, she knew, she just knew, that it was Neptune. And one of these days, he might actually open his mouth and speak. She let herself imagine it: his voice rushing through the phone like water, washing over her, through her. Maybe he’d tell her the one thing she’d always wanted to know: what he’d done with her mother, why she was the only victim whose body was never found. The others had been displayed so publicly, but all they ever found of Vera was her right hand. (Location 270-276)

      In spite of the harassing calls, Reggie is thriving in her present day orderly life until she receives a phone call in 2010. Her mother, Vera, has been found alive in Massachusetts. She's been in a homeless shelter for the past couple of years under an assumed name, but now she is dying and she has finally admitted her real name.

      “No, Regina. It seems they’ve found your mother. Alive.” Reggie spat out the coffee, dropped the cup onto the floor, watching it fall in slow motion, dark espresso splattering the sustainably harvested floorboards. It wasn’t possible. Her mother was dead. They all knew it. They’d had a memorial service twenty-five years ago. Reggie could still remember the hordes of reporters outside; the way the preacher smelled of booze; and how Lorraine’s voice shook when she read the Dickinson poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” (Location 291-296)

      "Reggie wondered if she and her mother would even recognize each other. She tried to picture the stump where her mother’s right hand had been—the hand that had once tapped out the rhythm of every song on the radio; the hand that held hers ice-skating on Ricker’s Pond. Reggie pushed her hair back, fingers finding the small crescent moon of scars behind her prosthetic ear. Maybe, she thought, feeling her own scar tissue, they’d know each other by what was missing." (Location 599-604)

      Reggie finally returns to Brighton Falls after her 25 year absence, but her attempts to discover Neptune's identity are amounting to nothing, since Vera seems mentally incapable of remembering anything. Vera and Reggie's return also heralds the more sinister return of Neptune.

      The One I Left Behind is a complex novel with the kind of phenomenal character development that helps drive the plot and allows suspense to build gradually as the events in 1985 and 2010 are played out in the alternating chapters. I was doubly impressed with the plot and the character development. McMahon does an exemplary job of keeping the action and tension building while exhibiting an astute ability to capture the voice of Reggie at both 13 and 38 in a believable way. Clues to Neptune's identity are slowly revealed, moving the plot forward as the darker aspects of all the personalities involved are also exposed.

      Very Highly Recommended

      After very highly recommending Jennifer McMahon's Don't Breathe a Word, and now The One I Left Behind, I believe McMahon has just elevated herself into the position of an author I will endeavor to always read.
    • 5/5
      If it was possible to give more than five stars on a review this book deserves it.
      In a typical small American town a silent killer stalks the streets kidnapping, maiming and killing five women and disappearing until twenty years later when suddenly it starts all over again. Is it a copy-cat killer or has the murderer the police dubbed Neptune come out of hiding one last time?
      For young Reggie, just thirteen when her mother disappeared, life holds more questions than answers. Whereas the severed right hand of her mom showed up on the doorstep of the police department just like all the others whose bodies where all left on public display days later, her mother’s body was never found. Now a successful architect trying to get on with her life, she is thrown a curve-ball when a call from the hospital reveals her mother has been admitted.
      Apparently her mother has been a transient, living in homeless shelters for years. How did she get back home, and why did she not die like all the others. As she begins to ask questions, her best friend from her days in high school, Tara, reappears in their life and takes the job as care-giver for her mother only to be kidnapped and her hand placed on the police department’s steps just like all the others. In a race to save Tara’s life Reggie puts her own life on the line.
      Trouble is brewing in this small town. Evil is stirring up the cauldron, slowly adding ingredients such as red-herrings and false suspicions as slowly the pot comes to a boil. With the turn of every page you expect to be totally blown away. McMahon is at her best as she raises the temperature and the tempo until it all spills over and leaves you gasping in surprise
    • 4/5
      Interesting concept, mostly okay execution.
    • 5/5
      My first exposure to this author was the book Promise Not To Tell, which was really good, and so I bought a few of her other books and started with this book. This was a Fantastic story. Like Promise Not To Tell, it is a story that happened in the past that dramatically affects the characters later on in life, and then this type of horrible event begins happening again. This author has the rare gift of being able to convincingly write characters when they are in their teens and as adults. she also does an expert job telling the story in alternating chapters going from the past to the present. Then there is the story itself, which holds the reader in its grip until the very end. I usually do not enjoy mystery/thrillers from female authors because with the exception of this author and a few others, such as Gillian Flynn, either the characters are not believable/convincing, the story is ridiculous, or they try to hard to write like a male author. This author delivers on all fronts, and is definitely someone worth reading.
    • 3/5
      I so wanted to love this book, I truly enjoyed other books by McMahon but this one just kind of fell flat. I think a lot was because I really didn’t like Reggie or the way she treated people, yes I know her mother disappeared at a very formative age for her, but she didn’t ever seem to be able to tell when people were being nice or really trying to help her out. And the way she treated her aunt just made me mad.There was just too many coincidences and the different timelines did get a little confusing at times, especially once Tara was back in the picture because we had just seen her as this very odd teenager and now we are supposed buy her as a caring nurse without any story telling us how she got there it was just a tough sell.We also never really got to hear Vera’s side of where she had been all those years and then the reveal of who Neptune was it just fell flat, it was rushed and was just odd.Julia Whelan did a great job at the narration but the book itself was just meh for me.2 ½ Stars
    • 5/5
      This was my first Jennifer McMahon book, and I wonder how I've missed her other books. What a powerful writer! Her characters are well-developed, but hold some secrets. Her style, switching from 1985 to 2010, with her principal at ages 13 and 38, is an unusual structure yet lets the reader see the young and mature(?) Reggie display how her childhood fears affect her stunted adulthood. The suspense is beautiful: it is not driven by the boogie-man Neptune, but rather by the feelings of the three main characters, which is a luscious literary technique which makes this read so elegant.

      I am on my way to reading more of Ms. McMahon's books. This one stands out as my best read in a long, long while.
    • 4/5
      The summer of 1985 changes 13 year old Reggie 's life forever. A serial killer nicknamed Neptune abducts women, cutS off their hands, and later poses his victims in the nude in a local area. Reggie's mom's hand was found but it's been 25 years and there is still no sign of her until Reggie gets a call from her aunt that Reggie's mom has been found and is dying of cancer.
    • 4/5
      The One I Left Behind was such a thought-provoking and mysterious read. It took me a while to get through the story, but not because I wasn't invested in it, I read it slow to savor the story, and to get what I could from it. Jennifer McMahon's writing was brilliant, and this was a great adult crime/thriller novel. I didn't know where the story was going until the very end, nor was I able to guess a lot of the twists and turns, which to me is needed to make a good mystery. Reggie is an awkward 13-year old girl who's mother Vera, is not only promiscious, but also a drunk. When Vera goes missing, Reggie's family think it's just here running away from life again, but when her hand is found on the steps of the local police station, where 3 other womens hands have been found prior, and only days before their dead, naked, bodies, have been displayed in public places, Reggie knows her mother is gone for good, and due to the infamous serial killer, known as Neptune. I found myself glued to the pages of this book, and each time I sat down to read a little bit, I read at least 50+ plus pages before looking up from the book. I loved Jennifer McMahon's writing, and am so happy I have another one of her titles on my shelves, waiting to be devoured!
    • 4/5
      Just like McMahon's last effort, this one has great narrative twists and turns. Seems she can't go wrong as far as I'm concerned.
    • 3/5
      Mysteries and thrillers really have never been of too much interest for me, but I do tend to make an exception for serial killer stories. I'm going to try not to look to deeply into myself as to why that is. I tell you this, so that you're aware that this is not a normal genre for me to read, just so you know to take my criticism with a grain of salt. While I did enjoy The One I Left Behind, I definitely think it will be a more powerful read for those more into the genre.

      McMahon's writing is good, and this definitely falls under more of a literary category than most mysteries I've read. If you go for action-packed thrillers, the slow pace of this one might irk you. If however, you like well-crafted stories that slowly unfold to the reader, McMahon's will be perfect for you.

      The story alternates between 2010 and 1985 third person limited perspective on Reggie, with occasional tidbits from a book written about the events of 1985. In 1985, a serial killer struck in their little town Brighton Falls, Connecticut. First, a hand, removed from the woman's body, would appear on the steps of the police station. Then five days later, the body would be located, naked and strangled. Then, Reggie's mother's hand appeared, but her body was never found. In 2010, Vera, her mother, reappears, crazy and alive.

      The stakes are upped when Neptune captures another woman, Reggie's childhood best friend, Tara. With that the search is on. In 1985, Tara, Reggie and Charlie are searching for Vera in the four days before Neptune will kill her; in 2010, Reggie's doing the same for Tara. This narrative structure works very well, and definitely amps up the suspense in the second half.

      Reggie has been emotionally damaged by her childhood, both pre- and post-Neptune taking her mom. Through her investigation into the serial killer, she comes to terms with everything more, and learns valuable life lessons. Her emotional arc ties up a little too nicely, but she will probably have setbacks past the window the readers get to see.

      Though I'm not usually a great guesser of twists, I did figure out who Neptune was really early on. That really does not affect my enjoyment of stories, because, mostly, I just revel in how smart I am the whole time, unless I do not approve of said twist. I think the killer just so obviously had to be the person that it was, but, as usual, any number of other suspects will need to be cycled through first.

      Literary suspense fans, this book is for you! Enjoy! I wouldn't be entirely opposed to reading more McMahon, but I just don't read enough of this genre to make that entirely likely, at least with my current reading tastes.
    • 4/5
      I read Jennifer McMahon's novel Island of Lost Girls back in 2008 and I really enjoyed it - as well as 2011's Don't Breathe a Word. So, I was happy to pick up her latest offering - The One I Left Behind.Regina Dufrane's upbringing was turbulent and unsettled. Her mother loved her, but was manic, often leaving her to her own devices. Her only friends were the other two outcasts at school. But in 1985, when Reggie is thirteen, a serial killer strikes their town. He takes women, leaves their severed hands on the steps of the police station and then their bodies appear five days later. He is nicknamed Neptune. But Reggie's world falls apart when the killer snatches mother. The killer is never caught.Twenty five years later, Reggie has left town and is a successful architect. And her life is going along fine - until she receives a telephone call telling her mother Vera has been found - alive. Can she identify her killer? Where has she been all these years.McMahon again employs her split narrative technique. We revisit the past through Reggie's memories and learn more about the case in excerpts from a book written about the killer. And of course through present day as Reggie returns to her hometown to be with her mother.Although all the right elements are there and the style echoes McMahon's previous books, I just didn't love it as much as the first two. I found some of it far fetched - Reggie decides she can solve the crime better than the police - architect detective. The whodunit it was fairly obvious and the supporting cast all seemed to be caricatures rather than characters I cared about. The one person I did like? Vera. The plot did stretch credibility for me, as did the ending. I chose to listen to The One I Left Behind. The reader was Julia Whelan. She has a pleasant, expressive voice and enunciated well. She has a slightly gravelly tone to her voice that gives some weight to her reading.I like McMahon, but this latest book, in my opinion, didn't match her previous offerings.
    • 3/5
      I, like others did not like this book as much as I thought I would from reading the existing reviews. I think I need to go back to the old way of following my gut. Don't get me wrong it was not the worse I have read, but not the best either. We all have our favorite scary authors. The story line weakened from repetition and I found myself losing the train of thought. The other review that says it best said you would forget it the minute you put it down. To write this I had to look the book up and familiarize myself with it again. And it has only been a week since I finished it. Sorry!
    • 4/5
      I did not love this book...but I did not dislike it either. For me, it was ok, but nothing to write home about.I though, from the summaries I read, that I would like it much more than I did. I am all for serial killers! But somehow it left me rather cold. Maybe because most of the characters are not very likable. You need as a reader to have someone to identify with and while I assume in that case that should be Reggie, I found that hard. And can I just say that the whole 'ear' thing just struck me as odd, a gimmick.It was for me, one of those book you read and think it was a pretty good read nd then forget it the minute you put it down.
    • 4/5
      Ending each chapter in a cliff hanger drove me wild, and kept me up reading into the wee hours of the morning.This is a story about 13 year old Reggie, It is the summer of 1985 and there is a serial killer called Neptune on the loose in a small town in Conneticut. He kidnaps and kills women, cuts off their right hand putting it for display out in the open and it isn’t until days later that the police find the rest of the victims body.Reggie’s wild and beautiful mother Vera is taken and when the police find her right hand, all hope is lost. They never do find her body though…what does this mean? Is she really dead? Is she in Cahoots with Neptune? Has her body just not been found? When Vera goes missing it throws Reggie’s life in to turmoil and she goes to live with her Aunt, Vera’s sister, years later after Reggie has made a new, yet troubled life for herself, her aunt calls her back home to tell her, well… I don’t want to spoil the ending for you. You will just have to read it for yourself to find out what makes Reggie rush home to hear what her aunt has to say.The story moves back and forth in time from Reggie as a child to Reggie as a troubled adult. The One I Left Behind is full of twists and turns and just when you think you have it figured out, you don’t. I had not read anything by Ms. McMahon before, so glad to make her aquantance and looking Forward to reading more from her in the future
    • 4/5
      I’m going to confess right up front --- I read the ending of this book first. That happens often with me but I’m religious about reading the ending of a thriller before even getting 20 pages in. It’s my thing. This isn’t my first McMahon book and she has a way of creeping me out early on so I need to find that strand of sanity to hold onto while she pulls me through the story with my eyes half closed. Knowing the ending didn’t make this any less exciting. McMahon doesn’t take a straight path to the end, and even knowing still made it nerve wracking.Reggie Dufrane’s life has never been easy. Born to a former beauty queen, she always idolized her mother, wondering at her beauty but never really knowing the woman beneath the veneer she created for her daughter. Having lost her ear when she was attacked by a dog at a very young age, Reggie grew up with one real ear and one fake one, never to be the beauty her mother was. In the summer of 1985, a serial killer begins terrifying the residents of Brighton Falls, Connecticut. When the severed hands of the victims begin appearing on the front steps of the police station, every resident in town waits, waits for the body to appear next. And each time a hand appeared, a body soon followed. When Reggie’s mother disappears, she knows the killer, dubbed Neptune by the local press, must have her. When her mother’s hand, recognizable by the scars she suffered rescuing Reggie from the dog attack, everyone waits for the body. It never appears. Days pass and months go by but the body of Vera Dufrane never appears.Making the most out of an opportunity to start over, Reggie moves far away from Brighton Falls and puts as much distance as possible between her future and her past. A well-known architect, she celebrated in her industry but she’s never escaped Neptune and he haunts her till the day her mother re-appears --- alive.I knew how this was going to end but I still wanted to have every light on in the room I was sitting in and all the doors locked in the house. With most thrillers, I love the crazy ride, and you do get that here, but there’s the psychological element that McMahon does so well. It’s the cruel way she plays around with the characters letting you see every picked scab and dirty secret long-held onto in the dark. Reggie is damaged goods, both mentally and physically. Her mother, a woman more damaged than her, is not one to look up to but she’s all Reggie ever had. The summer of her disappearance and supposed murder becomes an eye opener to Reggie who learns that her mother and the woman known as Vera Dufrane are two very different people. McMahon doesn’t let anyone off easy and sometimes I did long for one person without any crazy skeletons in the closet beyond the embarrassing moments in high school that we all have. Those people don’t exist in her books and that’s what makes them so readable and difficult to read at the same time. Her characters are so flawed they become believable and unbelievable all at once and because of that you can’t stop reading. By the time you want out, you’re too far in and you need to know how it’s all going to turn out --- good or bad.
    • 4/5
      I love the cover of this novel and was super excited to read it after reading the blurb. This book was like a rollercoaster for me... there were a lot of ups and a lot of downs but overall, I enjoyed this suspenseful novel of twists and turn. There's always a darkness to McMahon's writing and I actually love it. It ripples underneath the surface of the plot until the very end when it erupts and you realize, "crap! That's what I was feeling the whole time." It sneaks up on you and you realize her writing is. just. that. good. There were some areas that could have been improved...I wasn't fond of the main characters...I felt they could have been developed more. I also thought some of the twists and turns were a little on the predictable side. But overall, I really enjoyed this one!
    • 4/5
      The One I Left BehindBy Jennifer McMahonMy " in a nutshell" summary...Serial killer...bodies without hands...a young girl's mother vanishes...her hand appears but not her body...then the killings suddenly stop for years...the mother returns and the killer seems to reappear.My thoughts after reading this book...This book starts out rather creepy...and alternates between the real story of this serial killer named Neptune and what happened 25 years ago...victims were taken and their hands were found...usually precisely wrapped and the bodies were found later except for one body that was never found. That body was Reggie's mom...Vera...who reappears...ill...homeless...with one hand missing...25 years later. I am not a huge fan of alternating time stories...I sometimes find them rather confusing...and that was the case with this book. I had to keep checking years and stories and I swear some of my ARC's pages were duplicates...but after awhile I was engrossed in the story and used to the dueling eras. It was still creepy. It seems that Reggie and her friends Tara and Charlie were involved in trying to find out what appended to Vera all those years ago. It didn't help that Vera drank...was a bit loose...kept a motel room that no one knew about...and stayed out late with men. Her disappearance was still a shock. So...we are still alternating past and present stories...my ARC still has duplicate chapters...and within the present time...another woman disappears. Neptune is back most likely because he never left.Whew!There is a breathless fast paced quality to the last half of this book. Just know that it twists and turns and most likely you will suspect everyone the way I did and have no clue who Neptune is until the end. Which...by the way...is written in such a way that you can't stop reading until the very last words...oh...and that will be relatively breathlessly. This book is very creepy.What I will remember about this book...I was not fond of any of the characters. Some books are like this for me. Vera was not nice. Reggie...I guess she might be the most normal character...Aunt Lorraine...not very nice either. What I will remember most about this book is Neptune...and that in this book nothing is normal. Really.Final thoughts...This book was fast paced exciting scary absorbing well written...with a unique killer in the form of Neptune. It was just a bit too freaky scary for me. I sort of enjoyed reading it but I really want to forget about it. It's the stuff nightmares are made of...lol.
    • 5/5
      Another hit by McMahon. I fell in love with her writing with Don't Breath a Word and I have loved every book since. In The One I left Behind the story starts out super spooky and hooks you from page one. The story is intense, mysterious and a real page turner. You will read characters you relate to and will be taken on an intense ride. There is evil, red herrings, false leads and brilliant writing. The story flipping from past to present from Reggie's point of view adds such depth to the story. It is simply an amazing story that will leave you with your jaw dropping in surprise. Another 5 star hit!
    • 5/5
      On the book flap:"The summer of 1985 changes Reggie’s life. An awkward thirteen-year-old, she finds herself mixed up with the school outcasts. That same summer, a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother, Vera, the most, Vera’s hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there’s no body and Neptune disappears.Now, twenty-five years later, Reggie is a successful architect who has left her hometown and the horrific memories of that summer behind. But when she gets a call revealing that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again."__________Don’t let the serial killer aspect throw you off. It’s only part of what makes this story intriguing and read worthy. What I like most about this book, and all of Jennifer McMahon’s stories, is that it’s as much about the characters as it is the action. I was hooked from the start.I’m one of those readers who enjoys a story more when I like how characters are written. And I don’t mean “like” in the literal sense. I absolutely despise Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, but that was because they were awful people, not awful “characters”. It takes skill to create a character that you feel that passionate about, whether that emotion is to like or hate them.To be honest, there are strikingly similar premises in several of her books – dark pasts with darker secrets – however each story is still unique and powerful in its own right. Sometimes backstories can be overdone or unnecessary, which makes me feel like the author is just trying to fill space. But never with McMahon. I’ve never taken more than a day or two to read her books. I just can’t put them down for long.When I worked in a bookstore, I recommended her to not only my customers, but to my co-workers and I’ve never had anyone come back disappointed. They are that good – this one included.