The Child Finder: A Novel

A different take on the lost child story, from beginning all the way to the end. It’s a very worthwhile read.

I read this quite a while ago but held my review until it was closer to the publishing date. As you can see I was blown away by her writing and the fantastic way she assembles her story lines. As in the first book, she tackles imprisonment, but in this book it takes a new form. She also highlights the strong will to survive and the ways this is managed, even in horrific circumstances. In her first book she used a form of magical realism, in this another form of magic, the power of stories, in this case fairytales. Naomi is a child finder she has gone through some traumatic experiences in her past, and we get glimpses of this throughout the story. She usually tackles only one case at a time, and in this her main case will be that of a missing five year old girl. Naomi's past has made her a dogged searcher, able to piece together things others cannot. I wish she would have stuck with her one case rule because the second case she takes was a small wrinkle in an otherwise almost perfect reading experience. Really couldn't see the need for this case, though it did concern a missing child, it was I thought an unnecessary diversion. Still there is no getting away from the fact that this is a story that pulls one in, the setting and season adds to the tension. Gorgeous writing as well. I love how she shows that people are not just one thing, that everyone has hidden layers,. Many have had horrible experiences in life, and have found unique ways of dealing with them. This does concern the sexual abuse of children but nothing is graphic, again it is handled extremely well. I wonder if since we never get the full details of Naomi's life if there might be a sequel, would like to learn more about this intriguing character.ARC from publisher.

I liked how the story interlaced together. I liked the suspenseful parts. I liked Naomi living with Mrs. Cottle and being a child because she knew the simplicity of it and appreciated it.

A dark and imaginative story about a private detective that specializes in missing children. Naomi was once a stolen child herself. She has grown up living with the fact that parts of her memory are still unclear. This personal experience gives her special insight and devotion to the cases of missing children she is hired to solved.This time, her job has brought her deep into the snowy woods of Oregon where a young girl named Madison has been missing for three years. Although most have given the child up for dead, Naomi has a feeling that she is still out there somewhere, perhaps kept in a bunker by someone living off the grid.Naomi's investigation is interspersed with scenes between a deaf hunter and a young girl who calls herself "the Snow Girl". She believes that her captor made her out of snow and it is her job to take care of him. As Naomi moves ever closer to discovering the missing child she will have to stay sharp if she is to escape with her life.I thought this concept was interesting, but the author fails to really hold suspense. It's pretty much a given from the beginning that the protagonist will find the child and save her. I also thought it was a little troubling to make the villain a deaf child who had also been stolen and abused. It seemed like his disability was used to other him and make him seem more threatening and monstrous.

Trigger warnings. but as I hace no desire to experience this world again due to the heartwrenching nature of what happens Though I do plan on reading book 2 soon.

The writing was beautiful. Very poetic at times. But the subject, some of the details, just break your heart. I don’t want to give anything away, but there are parts that are so sad I actually had to put the book down for a little while and wrap my head around the story...

To convoluted. To much swapping roles and stories. Unless you can REALLY listen to the details, you can easily get derailed.

Riveting story of investigator Naomi Cottle, once an abducted child herself, who has quietly helped law enforcement & grieving parents find one lost/missing child after another. Whether the child is already dead, or abducted and alive-- somewhere-- Naomi has pursued training & uses her finely honed people assessment skills to unravel the mystery of a child who is momentarily there, & then just gone. The main thrust of the narrative focuses on her pursuit of a little girl, Madison, who wanders away -just in a moment - from her family as they explore the edges of the Skookum Nat'l Forest in Oregon on a snowy winter day. Three years later, after exhaustive searches & a thorough investigation, common sense & law enforcement accepts the fact that little Madison certainly became disoriented in the thick forest & succumbed to a crevasse, to the snow, and/or the bitter cold. without any signs of struggle, hints of her path taken, etc she must be dead. But her mother insists she's alive.Enjoyed the building tension - and the alternate narratives of Naomi's investigation, and the little girl's experience with "B", the mute/deaf mountain trapper who finds her and takes her to his remote cabin high up in the mountains miles from the road. This was expertly done; the poetic asides " the wind sighed, and knew the sun's warmth, etc etc" sort of passages weren't as effective as I think the author intended. Nevertheless, her ability to evoke the agony of parents' sorrow, the sadness & resignation of law officers, the emotional warmth and sympathy for all the characters involved - this was compelling.

Page-turning contemporary mystery about a woman with a calling to search for missing children due to her own traumatic past. The main storyline, told primarily by the Child Finder and the Snow Child, is the search for a child missing for three years in the Oregon snow country.

I found both the primary and minor characters well-drawn. I could easily imagine the store owner, the poachers and trappers, the ranger, the sheriff, the best friend, and the foster mom. The language enabled me to picture the atmosphere of the snow-covered mountains of the sparsely-populated back country of Oregon. I thought the author brought a fresh perspective to an established theme by writing from the child’s point of view, using a fantasy method employed by children for self-protection. It is easy to pick up the clues along the way, but I think this is intentional on the author’s part. I found it more a story of responses to trauma, and coping mechanisms, than a standard mystery. The Child Finder exhibits lingering effects from her own abduction (which we are aware of from the beginning), such as a lack of trust, inability to form deep emotional attachments, and unexplained desire to run away from even those that care for and love her. Even though these traits may distance her somewhat from the reader, I felt it was authentic and very well done by the author. The primary drawback was the obvious setup for a sequel. For example, the romantic plot line seemed out of place.

Due to the subject matter, an extra level of warning is warranted. This book contains content related to child abduction, child abuse, and pedophilia. Sexual assault aspects are handled from a child’s perspective, so it was not as graphic as it could have been. There are also scenes related to trapping and killing of animals.

Naomi Cottle is a PI who specializes in lost children and she's good at her work. Maybe it's because she was found by migrant workers, running through fields, and grew up in foster care. She has no memory of her early years and it's a huge hole in her life. She's in love with a man who grew up in the same foster home, but can't commit to him because she's searching for who she is. Her latest case is a little girl who wandered off from her family on a Christmas tree cutting outing and disappeared in the snowy woods. The chapters alternate between Naomi's point of view and that of the lost girl. So we know she's alive and the mystery becomes how the story will be resolved, and whether Naomi will find answers to her own questions.I had a hard time warming to her - you love the guy, he's the only person alive you trust, what are you waiting for? The mystery kept me interested but wasn't outstanding.

Rene Denfield's past experiences and lifestyle choices come through clearly in this book. Ms. Denfield is an investigator that has worked helping victims of sex trafficking, and a foster parent tor children in need for many years. The book is a treatise on lost children -- how it happens, how it perpetuates and explains why some children survive, albeit they are forever changed, and some don't. It certainly pulls on the heartstrings. I read Rene Denfield's book Enchanted a few years ago, and it left an indelible impression on me this many years later. Denfield's writing is so illustrative that her characters come alive. And that is what made this book so difficult to read. Little Madison Culver became a beacon for me and I was pulling for Naomi to find her before it was too late. Naomi Cottle is called "The Child Finder". She has not found every child that she has searched for, but she has found a lot. Some are alive and some not. She uses her past experiences from a very imperfect memory to help her find her lost children. As the book proceeds, we hear a lot more of Naomi's early life, and find out why she is so determined to find these lost children. This is a very intense book with alliterative writing that makes everything so real, and it's so distressing as you can't help yourself from getting caught up in this story. I can only say thank you to the real people out there who try to find these lost children, and try to help them adjust back into their lives. Margaret Atwood loved this book, and who am I to question our Canadian laureate writer on her opinions and recommendations? Listening to this on audiobook was an excellent way to get engrossed in this unforgettable story.

What a sad and unfortunately true event that does happen every day. As a mother, I can imagine the pain of having a missing child, and I don't think I could handle it at all. This book totally captured that desperate feeling. And to be a child rescued from that situation - nobody's life would ever be the same.

Wonderful book with a difficult, very emotive subject matter, very delicately done.
This book has two main stories, the primary one of Naomi, the child finder, searching for Madison three years after her disappearance. As the reader we see both Naomi's investigation and child's perspective. Madison with only sketchy memories of before, feels herself to be a snow girl, created by her captor.  There is also the story of Naomi, and the reason why she does what she does is that she is also a lost child, who was found.
This book has a difficult subject, that of abducted children and personally I found it quite a challenging read on an emotional level. Saying that, the subject was handled with sensitivity and care.  Probably anybody who is a parent will find this a very emotive topic.  I am not often brought to tears by books but I was with this one.
This isn't a book to be taken lightly, and I think it will stay in my mind for a while after reading.  It's probably one of the best books that I have read this year and last.

For the full review check out my blog: Engrossed in a Good Book

Good little mystery with enough suspense and character development to be interesting. Recovered lost child now finds lost children in a rogue, independent detective kind of way while navigating her own difficult past. Nice bit in this book about trappers and life in the middle of nowhere. I may or may not read more, we will see.

Trigger warning: Child rape. It is not explicit.

A great book about a tough subject to get right... A hero survivors can believe in

4.5 stars.

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld is a fast-paced and compelling mystery with a unique protagonist and an intriguing premise.

Naomi is a private investigator who specializes in searching for missing children. Her latest case takes her to the snow-laden Oregon mountains where she is searching for Madison Culver, a young girl who went missing three years earlier.  Despite the passage of time, Naomi is working off the assumption that Madison is still alive and she quickly embarks on a systematic and in depth investigation that she hopes will lead her to the missing girl.

Due to her personal history, Naomi is compelled to help the loved ones whose children have gone missing. She works with a single-minded focus as she attempts to uncover evidence that will hopefully lead her to the truth about the children she is searching for.  Naomi is a very personable young woman but she finds it difficult to let people into her life. She is somewhat closed off and she is quite reluctant to trust anyone. Naomi distances herself physically and emotionally from almost everyone in her life.

Naomi's investigation into Madison's disappearance is thorough and she does not hesitate to follow every piece of information she uncovers. She is somewhat reckless as she travels to remote locations without giving any thought to her personal safety. Naomi has no qualms about confronting the trappers who have unconventional lives and are naturally suspicious of everyone outside of their trusted circle. Despite the harsh weather and unforgiving mountainous terrain, Naomi continues her search for Madison after she discovers troubling information about someone in the distant past.

In addition to the investigation into Madison's disappearance, Naomi is beginning to remember bits and pieces about her own fractured past. Up to this point, she has very few concrete recollections of her time in captivity. However, the fragmented pieces from her traumatic past are finally beginning to fall into place, and Naomi hopes she will now find the answers to the questions that have long haunted her.

The Child Finder is an engrossing mystery that delves into somewhat dark subject matter.  Rene Denfeld deftly broaches these difficult topics with sensitivity but please be aware there are some chapters which are graphic yet integral to the storyline. I highly recommend this sometimes heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive novel to fans of the genre.

Very entertaining suspense and seemingly the beginning of a new series. Naomi Cottle is a survivor of child kidnapping and abuse herself, although she remembers very little from before her escape at age 9. Now in her late 20s, she is known to police as "The Child Finder", having an intuitive method of following clues in child kidnappings that the police have been unable to solve. Although she sometimes finds live children and sometimes dead, she has an astonishing success rate. Naomi is asked by a rural Oregon couple to look into the three-year-long kidnapping of their 5 year old, Madison, who wandered away from the parents to explore the woods when they went Christmas tree hunting. Presumed dead from hypothernia, Madison is, however, still alive, and her story is intertwined with Naomi's search for her, making for a chilling tale of two survivors. Sexual abuse is clear here, and I did find it unsettling, especially Madison's survival response in the presence of her kidnapper. But I did like the book very much, and the sequel is already on my request list at the library.

Children are some of the most vulnerable human beings. They often go missing or disappear without a trace. Some are found, and many are not...creating loss and turmoil in homes and families that change the very core pattern of their lives. In this book we meet Naomi, a young woman known as the "child finder." She has no past she can fully remember, but she knows that she must never give up on finding those who are lost. I thought the book was hard to follow since the story was told from two voices that alternated. Also this child was portrayed as 6 years old going on 30 with understanding of things that were far beyond her mental abilities. The man was a pedophile no matter how the author painted it. The ending was wrapped up too neat and everything just went back to norm? I don't think so.

A woman who searches for missing children hides a past she doesn't even remember or doesn't want to remember is the child finder. She is searching for a little girl who has been missing in the wilderness for several years. Summer read. The little girl relates her life now and the hunter runs from her own past.

In Rene Denfeld’s THE CHILD FINDER, Naomi is known for her ability to find children, sometimes dead but more often alive. She, herself, escaped something when she was a child, something she forgets, and was subsequently raised in a foster home, with her foster brother, Jerome.That is one of the mysteries: what does Naomi forget?The main mystery of THE CHILD FINDER, though, involves Madison, who was lost in the woods when she was 5-years-old. It is now three years later. Chapters alternate: mostly Denfeld concentrates on Naomi’s search for Madison and the present state of Madison. But two other stories are also going on: Naomi’s other job—finding a missing baby whose mother is in jail for her murder—and Naomi’s relationship with Jerome.There are some problems. Every character in this book is so one dimensional the reader never really knows any one of them, even Naomi. That means this is a plot-driven, rather than character-driven, story. Also, Madison is only 5- to 8-years-old in the chapters that describe her, yet most everything she does seems way beyond a child that young.Other than these two problems, though, THE CHILD FINDER is an engaging book. I stayed up late to finish it last night so, obviously, am glad I read it. As I understand, this is the first in a series, and I’ll be looking to finding out about her next case and whether, this time, she investigates alongside Jerome.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! While some of the child molestation scenes were disturbing to read, I loved the character of Naomi and was left wanting more. I was thrilled to learn that there is a sequel planned for 2019!

Naomi is a young private investigator who exclusively searches for missing children. Set in the high wilderness of Oregon, the story opens with Naomi being hired by the parents of Madison, who disappeared 3 years earlier while they were out to cut a Christmas tree. The story winds around, slowly revealing Naomi's past and how she came to be in foster care with Mary Cottle and her foster brother, Jerome. She questions the motives and trustworthiness of everyone she encounters on her search for Madison. It took me awhile to understand that sections detailing Mr. B and the snow girl sequences were not Naomi's past, but Madison's experience. The author deals gently and sensitively with the horrifying topic of abducted children who are held captive and abused, both from the perspective of the children and their parents. There are references to past cases she has worked on, including a subplot of the missing child of woman with mental health issues, which exposes the scope of this problem across racial and socioeconomic groups. The writing is atmospheric with the back drop of the the snow, forest, and emerging spring in Oregon muffling some of the stark reality in the narrative. The author treats her characters with great compassion, yet holds the reader in tension as the story unfolds.

he past number of years, the news has been filled with accounts of girls or young women kidnapped months or years before and suddenly found alive, having been kept hidden and held hostage by their kidnappers. This is the best possible outcome for kidnapped children although the lifelong emotional toll on the recovered children has to be enormous. But every parent of a taken child must be desperate for such an outcome. Rene Denfeld's novel The Child Finder introduces a character whose specialty is finding missing children, alive or dead, and this first book in a planned series starts off in a quietly spectacular manner. Naomi is special. Called "the child finder" by her clients, she specializes in finding kidnapped and missing children, never giving up and combing over scant information from every direction possible to help her figure out where the children must be. She agrees to take on the case of little Madison Culver, missing for three years, who disappeared at the age of five when in Skookum National Forest picking a Christmas tree with her family. She seemingly disappeared into thin air and no further trace of her has ever been found but her parents have refused to give up hope even as their own marriage cracks under the strain of not knowing her fate. As Naomi methodically tracks the missing girl, her own story as a missing child, one who escaped but was never reclaimed or identified, haunts her dreams. Her own trauma informs her search for Madison and her concurrent search for the missing baby of a developmentally delayed young woman who has been charged with the baby's murder.Naomi's own past, which is revealed to the reader in small pieces, informs how she goes about her work, antagonizing some people, pushing others, and only rarely opening up to anyone. She is clearly deeply affected by her own story, allowing her to connect with and have a surprising compassion for broken people even while she is uncomfortable around most folks. Interspersed with flashes of Naomi's past and her search, is a fairy tale of sorts. Calling herself the snow girl, a child tells herself the few small things she remembers of her life before being taken and what she knows and learns of the man with whom she lives. This latter piece of narration is absolutely gut wrenching for the reader but it is not horrifically graphic. Denfeld manages to create full and complex characters even in those only in the story for a brief amount of time, rounding them out as real and understandable in their motivations. Although this is billed as a thriller, because the narrative tension is steady and consistent it really isn't one. The story feels quiet, like it's muffled in the deep snow that quickly covered all traces of Madison's whereabouts when she disappeared. And although it deals with kidnapping and abuse, it somehow feels gentle and compassionate. At the end of the book, only one question remains, Naomi says that "it's never too late to be found" but will she be able to find herself over the course of the series?

I love books with dysfunctional, sometimes hard to like hero’s. Naomi is a great one.

Somehow I managed to miss The Enchanted until it got reduced by Amazon to an affordable sale price. But my friend Tori put Rene Denfeld on my radar, so I've been following her on Facebook and anxiously awaiting the release of The Child Finder.

I'm tempted to give this a one-word review. WOW.

Is it a thriller? Is it a fairy tale that takes the long way around to get to the "happily ever after"? It's kind of both. It tells a horrifying story in a beautiful, poetic way. There's just enough distance between the reader and the story to keep it from being too hard to take. There were times I had to remind myself what was really happening. I don't know if I could have read this as a traditional thriller. But as whatever this is, I loved it and HIGHLY recommend.

3.5 Audiobookgreat narrationI liked it, not loved it. It might be just a first book in a series, need to get to know the characters better thing. It was a suspense but I never felt that edge if my seat, omg you've got to hurry thing. I like a more adrenaline rushed suspense. I may give it another chance someday.

Five-year-old Madison Culver disappeared while on a family outing to pick out a Christmas tree in Skookum National Forest. Desperate to find their daughter, Madison’s parents engage private investigator Naomi Cottle, a woman who specializes in finding lost and missing children. Naomi, the child finder, is their last hope.Naomi, once a lost child herself, slowly uncovers the truth behind Madison’s disappearance. At the same time, dark dreams torment the woman, threatening to expose whatever she’s forgotten from all those years ago. Will discovering what happened to Madison help her unlock the secrets of her past?A complex plot slowly unfolds, revealing insights and more fully defining the strong, compassionate characters in this exquisite narrative. Beautifully-written, the narrative pulls readers into the telling of the tale and holds them there with poetic language, a strong sense of place, and powerful emotions. Spellbinding, atmospheric, captivating . . . this is one book readers are certain to find to be completely unputdownable.Highly recommended.

I am on a roll this month. This audiobook had my walks on high intensity as I wanted to get to the end and see how things panned out. I will say Naomi got on my nerves a bit. Wanted to kick her a time or two for being so stubborn. Stories that involve child abduction/missing children always hurt my heart a bit, but it was still very enjoyable. 4?

The Child Finder, Rene Denfield, author; Alyssa Bresnahan, narratorFor me, this novel was really about many different kinds of loss and the many different kinds of relationships involving love or the lack of it. It is about the loss of innocence, the loss of freedom, of memory, of a body part. It is about the loss of love or the inability to understand or find it. It is about what happens when something or someone that has been lost, is found after years of searching. It is about whether or not the search and discovery are worthwhile or whether or not the results are expected. It is about how the loss is handled by those grieving and about how those lost or those suffering from the loss, eventually come to terms with their trauma and learn to survive, if they are even retrievable. Each of the characters is involved in a traumatic event involving some kind of loss. Something is missing from each of their lives.In this novel, the author tells two parallel stories. One is about Naomi Cottle and her experiences. She is a young female detective who finds missing children. She is called the “child finder”. It is fitting that she has chosen this occupation because she had been a missing child, as well, but she has no memory of her life before her escape and rescue. When she became the foster child of Mrs. Cottle, a gentle woman who had lots of love to give, she began her recovery. Mrs. Cottle was kind and helped her to find her way back to life with her tenderness and compassion. Naomi had hoped some of her memory would return, but when the story begins, it has not. She is still searching for herself, as well as for others. Is she afraid to find her past? How will she deal with it if she remembers the horror of what happened to her?The other story is about a child named Madison. Naomi has been hired by Madison Culver’s parents to try and locate her. She has been missing for three years, but her mother believes that she is still alive. Naomi takes the case but explains that she may not find Madison alive, and even if she does, she may not be the same child they lost. How a child survives from the capture and brutality may cause tremendous changes in the child. How would Madison survive?Madison disappeared in the forest while hunting for a Christmas tree with her mother and father. When she wandered away from them, they did not see her leave. She fell and was injured. Lying, almost frozen in the snow, she was found by a man who could not hear or speak. He picked her up and carried her home. In his clumsy, misguided way, he saved her life, but what kind of a life did he provide? When she regained consciousness, she discovered that she was not with her parents but with this strange man with a very fragile temperament. She learned that he was easy to anger and was a deaf mute. Her five-year old child’s mind conjured up a fantasy which enabled her to survive as the time passed. She was no longer Madison. She was “the snow child”. In her young mind, she was born of the snow like the child in her favorite Russian folk tale. She was intuitive and tried to anticipate the moods of the man who kept her locked up. She hoped to prevent him from hurting her and to encourage him to allow her out of the “cave” in which she believed she was being held prisoner.The author handles the issue of sex very delicately. She uses metaphors for subjects that are difficult for Madison’s child’s mind to understand. When she is sexually abused she thinks of the sticks in the forest, and believes the twigs are hurting her. There are other references throughout, to serpents and snakes. The author has also imbued Madison with a mind that seems far more mature than that of a child’s. Her ability to read and write, to draw pictures to explain things and her thoughtful explanations and interpretations of her situation appear to be far more adult than someone with her meager number of years. Mr. B, the man who holds Madison captive, is like a child himself, although he is grown and quite large. He has had practically no experience with the outside world. He was kidnapped as a young child and was kept in a dark, dank cellar. He was beaten severely when he angered his captor. Today, he is simply a trapper who lives in the forest. He has never learned to read or write, and he has no understanding of normal emotions, other than extreme anger. If he is found, he would be very changed. He had once been a happy seven-year old child who wasjust beginning to learn his letters and how to lip read at the time he became separated from his family. They were distracted in a store when he wandered out, unnoticed, and was carried away by a man who lived in the forest and was known only for his meanness. Unable to make a sound, Mr. B, known as Brian at that time, simply disappeared. One minute he was there, and then, he was not. Perhaps the way he treated “the snow girl” was the only way he knew how to treat someone. He learned to hunt, kill animals and trade their skins, but he never learned to love. Madison, now “the snow child”, feared he would kill her too. There is another character, fostered by the same wonderful woman, Mrs. Cottle, who cared for Naomi and helped her through her trauma. He is Jerome. Naomi and Jerome were raised together. He, though, seems to be the only completely emotionally whole victim in the story, although he might have been the most floundering because of his experiences of abuse and suffering. Mrs. Cottle helped him find a new purpose in his life. She helped him fill in his missing parts with her pure and genuine love and concern for him.The book also raises and touches on many of the progressive ideas threading through the narrative of conversation today, as well as many of the social issues concerning us. The author raises the topic of sex trafficking. She touches on mental health issues when she tells the story of a woman who is autistic whose child is missing. Through her story, she also touches on racism and the additional obstacles her family had to face because of it. With Jerome, she touches on the dangerous effects of our political policies surrounding war and those who are involved in fighting the battles. With him, she also touches on Native American fables and, once again, racism. She touches on how death enters and leaves our lives and how we deal with the effects. Some face it head on and some skirt around the idea and are in denial. When the ranger’s wife sneaks off to die quietly, alone and without fanfare, he is left behind; he is bereft and frozen in place. He wants to know if she will ever be found. Although she has found her peace, his has been disturbed. Perhaps, the novel obliquely also touches on the harmful effects of ignorance, even when it is not a choice, but is a consequence of natural events, and the beneficial effects of having faith in someone or something, other than oneself. Then, also, there is the story of a missing illegal alien. When his mother reports him missing, she is arrested, shackled and deported. His body is later found, a victim of violence. Some of these stories seemed somewhat contrived in order to promote particular political points of view. Some felt unrelated to the rest of the novel and some felt perfectly at home within the pages. The narrator read each character with a clear, definitive voice. She enhanced the novel with her interpretation of each of them.