Isabelle Drake was once a lifestyle reporter for The Grit but she turned freelancer so she could marry the Grit publisher, Ben Drake, without causing too much controversy. Poor woman hadn’t slept more than an hour or so a night since her 18-month-old son, Mason, was taken from his crib as she and Ben slept only a few yards away. Since then, her entire existence has been a tireless pursuit of endless leads that result in nothing. She even begins taking her frustrations out on bystanders...once breaking the nose of a supermarket cashier that she had learned had a criminal record. The detective working the case, Det. Arthur Dozier with the Savannah Police Department has repeatedly warned her to stay out of, and away from, the case. She's exhausted from lack of sleep and from her constant travels to all the true-crime conventions across the region, telling the story of her little lost boy and the breakup of her marriage that followed, hoping that someone, somewhere, might know something. Isabelle eagerly agrees to tell her story to a podcaster, Waylon Spencer, thinking that he could spread it more widely. However, she only finds that the questions he asks to be unsettling...so much so that she begins to wonder if maybe she herself could have been the one responsible for Mason’s disappearance...and also what her role might have been in another family calamity that took place more than 20 years earlier that was swept under the rug because her father was a South Carolina congressman from a long line of congressmen. The conclusion to this story was nothing even resembling neat and orderly. There were multiple mysteries that ended up requiring a host of multiple suspects.... entirely too many. The author was relentless in linking Isabelle’s lack of sleep to her waking nightmare...something that I admit allows readers allows readers to easily relate to and sympathize with this woman. Even though Isabelle's nights are sleepless...her nightmares are many and continuous. ( )

Stacy Willingham's books keep me on the edge of my seat. You think you know where the book is going, and then somehow you come upon a knot of twists that leave you somewhere totally different. ( )

This was our book club read for January. It started off a little slow and then picked up very quickly. It really came together in the end with the plot. Great read! I thoroughly enjoyed it and didn’t foresee it ending that way. ( )

Publication Date: January 10, 2023

It has been almost a year since Isabelle Drake’s toddler son, Mason was taken from his crib in the middle of the night while Isabelle and her husband Ben slept in the next room. Over the last year, Isabelle has been functioning on minimal sleep and has left no stone unturned in trying to find her son – hounding the police who have been unsuccessful in finding any clues, giving interviews and investigating the backgrounds of her friends and neighbors and attendees of the true-crime conferences she attends. Despite her initial reluctance she also agrees to participate in a true-crime podcast hosted by Waylon Spencer, who has been successful in solving a cold case in the past and who was one of the attendees at a conference in which Isabelle speaks about her son’s disappearance. Isabelle's marriage has fallen apart after Mason’s disappearance and her husband Ben has apparently accepted that Mason is never coming home. He has moved on and is now involved with another woman. But nothing has deterred Isabelle from her efforts to find her child.

As the narrative progresses we are taken back to Isabelle’s childhood and the traumatic events that have haunted her throughout her life – events for which Isabelle holds herself responsible. We also get to know more about her relationship with her husband Ben – how they met, their marriage, and subsequent events. While Isabelle tries to zero in on possible suspects, often acting impulsively in confronting those whom she suspects, it becomes clear that she is also a suspect in her son’s disappearance in the eyes of the police and others around her. With no one above suspicion and over a year since Mason was taken, will Isabelle be able to figure out what happened on that fateful night? Who took Mason? Is he still alive? Who can she trust to help her? Can she even trust her own memories of that night?

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham is an absorbing read! Suspense and twists, lies and deception, flawed characters and an intriguing well-structured plot make for an engaging psychological thriller. The narrative is shared completely from Isabelle’s PoV and moves back and forth between the present day with flashbacks from her relationship with Ben and chapters devoted to her childhood. I wasn't the biggest fan of Stacy Willingham’s previous novel, A Flicker in the Dark , but I thoroughly enjoyed All the Dangerous Things. Though the pace does wane in parts, I enjoyed the plot development and the twists and turns along the way. Though the primary mystery is that of Mason’s disappearance, a lot is going on in Isabelle’s life and the author seamlessly weaves past events into the primary narrative and expertly brings it all together in the end. The author touches upon themes of trauma, marriage, motherhood and mental health in this story. I won’t say that the end wasn’t entirely unpredictable but I was definitely surprised by how we got there. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Many thanks to Stacy Willingham, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eGalley of this engrossing novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. ( )

A truly great read. It was a page-turner with twists and turns that continued to surprise. It was also a look into motherhood, believe-it-or-not, that felt real. The reader is drawn into the story through the wonderful prose of the storyteller. I will put her next novel on my TBR list! ( )