Emiko Jean

Ellie Balck has been missing for 2-years...kidnapped, now she has returned home...and she isn't talking. She absolutely refuses to talk about her kidnapper or where she has been. I found this to be an intriguing story with secrets and dysfunctional families. Ellie Black...is back as suddenly as she was gone. She's emaciated and traumatized, when she is found in a Washington state forest... two years after she was abducted from a parking lot. Who took her and how she escaped has confound show more police detective Chelsey Calhoun because Ellie isn't talking, she simply won't answer any of her questions. The case is an emotional one for Chelsey, whose teenage sister, Lydia, also went missing 15 - years before. The story is told from multiple perspectives, which gives it, not only several different perspectives but also several different types of emotions. The time that is spend with Ellie when she's a captive is told with such devastating detail that it almost seems to be a horror story. How her disappearance had affected her parents, and her boyfriend, is so well described with all the heartbreak and the anguish that came with them not knowing if Ellie is even still alive, and what she might be enduring. Detective Chelsey Calhoun, who is of Japanese descent, endures a double load of challenges in her life. She has the burden of sexism and racism on her job as well as in her community. She’s an interesting character. We learn details about her early life and her adoption into a family and how it has enriched her backstory. This author did a fantastic job of focusing less on sensationalizing the predator and more on the tragedy of yet another missing girl. Chelsey knows that these missing ones have no answers, nor do the majority speak of what they went through while held captive. She simply hears them saying, "Please find us". This author has written an impressive novel with an unexpected ending and a leading character hopefully to watch for in future stories. show less

Detective Chelsey Calhoun is driven in part due to her beloved older sister Lydia's disappearance when they were in their teens. Chelsey couldn't save Lydia, so she tries to save everyone else. When Ellie Black, who went missing over two years ago, reappears, Chelsey wants to know what happened - even more so once she begins to suspect that wherever Ellie was, other missing girls might be held too.

When Ellie goes missing again, Chelsey's husband Noah can see that she's too involved in the show more case, refusing to drop it even when instructed to by higher-ups. But Chelsey, following clues she pieces together from Ellie's parents, her old boyfriend Danny, and her therapist, goes after Ellie - and discovers that the case is even closer to home than she ever could have believed.

Sexism and abuse run through the novel, set in the gloomy Pacific Northwest; Chelsey is Japanese-American, adopted into a white family.

Quotes

When you study what you've been through, what happened to you, it loses its power, and then you have a choice: stay or move on. (89)

They'd been left behind, living on the jagged edges of never knowing. (95)

It was how we stayed alive, but it wasn't any way to live. (228)

Because what is grief but the other side of love? (298) show less

WOW! THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK by Emiko Jean is an intense thriller where you know from the start that what you see is not the whole truth but have no idea in which direction the story will go. The identity of the abductors took me by complete surprise, as did another reveal at the end. With Ellie’s story touching on not just abduction cases but also misogyny, racism, and the power of wealth in the justice system, it is as timely as it is enlightening. THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK is a show more welcome addition to the thriller genre, and I look forward to reading what Ms. Jean publishes next! show less

This book had my stomach in knots the whole time. Wow!! THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK is an impressive debut thriller from Emiko Jean. It centers around a teen girl, Ellie, who was abducted at 17, then mysteriously reappears two years later. What happened to Ellie during that time? Still haunted by her own troubled past, Detective Chelsey Calhoun intends to find out.

This was a DARK thriller that made me a nervous wreck with the incredible tension. It's so well written, with compelling characters show more and juicy twists. The outcome was pretty wild, but I loved how everything came together. Memorable! Definitely 5-Stars. show less