The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

Hello Beautiful People and welcome to another Baddie Book Review! I hope you enjoyed the last review and I would love to hear from some fellow mystery/thriller fans what you are reading for the spooky season.

For this review, we are diving into The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld which is the first book in her Naomi Cottle series. If I am being honest I don’t remember how this book ended up on my to-read list, and I was in the mood for a shorter book so I picked this one off the list. I ended up liking the book a lot so let’s get into the review.

Band of Characters:

• Naomi Cottle: A private detective who has been nick-named The Child Finder due to her specific skill in finding missing children dead or alive
• James and Kristina Culver: The parents of missing child Madison Culver
• Madison Culver: Missing child who was taken when she went missing in the woods
• Mr. B: Trapper in the woods who kidnaps Madison
• Ranger Dave: Ranger who works in the mountain town that Madison went missing in
• Jerome: Naomi’s foster brother

Some warnings for future readers:

• Includes sexual assault of children
• Includes child neglect and the death of a child

Review

I gave this book a 7.5/10. It was a very enjoyable fast-paced book that was filled with lots going on from start to finish. The book starts off right into the action so there are no boring prologues or backstories. Something that did make this book maybe a bit more slow than the average is we get introduced to the perpetrator early on. While we don’t get any info as to why he is the way he is until much later in the book we know early on that Madison is alive, and that Mr. B is the one who has her.

I think something that was tough about this book is the apparent sexual assault of a child that happens so often. Don’t get me wrong Denfeld definitely didn’t overdo it, or do it in a disrespectful way, but it’s always just tough. I think the hard part too is that Madison is old enough in the book to recognize what’s happening to her is wrong but she isn’t old enough to know why it’s wrong. It just makes my heart hurt.

I thought something that was interesting about the book was Naomi’s unique background that’s often different from other characters in these styles of mystery books. Naomi comes from a very traumatized upbringing that is different then others which makes her unique, but also explains why she is so intensely involved in her work. She connects to it on a deeper level than maybe others would. It also made me as the reader really feel for Naomi, and feel more connected to her because we knew that she had a non-normal upbringing.

Summary and Commentary

***Please be aware this section will have spoilers***

The book starts off getting right into the action. Naomi has been hired by the Culver family to look into the disappearance of their young daughter Madison. Naomi gets a sense of the family and recognizes the loss of their daughter has done a number on the parents. Something I respect about Naomi as a character is she’s very stern and real. She doesn’t play around with these families’ feelings and is realistic as to what can happen if she finds the child either dead or alive because the reality is no one outcome is actually that much better than the other. Madison’s mom is insistent she feels her daughter is still alive. Given the place they live in (a mountain town with heavy constant snowfall), Madison is probably dead, but Naomi says she will see what she finds. After speaking with the family Naomi goes to the spot where Madison went missing, even though it’s been a few years since she went missing. The family went to cut down a Christmas tree and she just disappeared into the woods from their site.  Heavy snowfall came in so it was hard to look for her. Naomi doesn’t feel optimistic because Madison went missing when she was 5 and if she was still alive would be 8.

We learn a bit more about Naomi and that she’s very dedicated to her work and tends to keep moving to wherever she is needed. This leaves little time for social or romantic connection. She rarely ever reaches out to the only family she knows which is Jerome her foster brother, and her foster mother Ms. Cottle. Next, we get a look into how the snow girl is living. The snow girl is what Madison refers to herself as, as obviously some kind of coping mechanism. She tells us about the first time she woke up and was with Mr. B. At first she thought he was taking care of her, but with his lack of talking to her, and not letting her leave she soon learned this was a different situation. Soon she begins to learn how to keep him happy and to keep him from hurting her and conforms to what keeps her safe. It seems like he was keeping her locked up in an underground bunker. Next, Naomi goes to the ranger station that looks after the area Madison went missing in (which is an extremely large forest area) and speaks with Ranger Dave. Dave shares that people often go missing in these woods due to the cold temperatures and the ability to get lots easily. Lots of trappers live in off-the-grid cabins to do hunting. Naomi asks for some info about the people who live in the area. Dave clearly worries about Naomi and gives her a rescue call thing so if she gets lost she can let him know.

Naomi dreams that night of a child version of her running in terror. This seems to happen often to her, giving the reader the idea that she has some demons from the past. We then get to look a bit into her past. She doesn’t have a lot of memory but she was running through a field and stumbled on some migrant workers in the field. They took good care of her and brought her to safety. She couldn’t remember her past (probably from trauma) and no one ever claimed her. She was put into the foster system and brought to live with Ms. Cottle who is a single long-time foster parent. It took a while but she eventually earned Naomi’s trust. She knew not to push her on trying to bring up the past and let Naomi heal in the way she needed. It seems that even in her adulthood she is running from her past. We get another look into what Madison is experiencing. It’s clear that Madison deals with the horrors happening to her by presenting them in a fairy-tale style. She almost makes it as if she is not experiencing what she is but it’s someone else. It’s a way to keep going, so she doesn’t lose herself. Madison realizes that Mr.B along with no speaking can’t read. Naomi realizes that she won’t be able to find all the cabins in the woods by looking at a map, she needs to talk to the people in the town.

Back with Madison, she has finally been trusted enough by Mr.B to spend some time outside of the underground bunker. He allows her to come into the cabin above ground with him. She would begin to tell if he was happy with her or not by where he let her stay and if he even let her out of the bunker. I just felt so sad for Madison. She was often having to observe Mr. B in many ways that a child shouldn’t in order to know if he was happy with her or not. She was often having to comfort this grown man in order to avoid getting hurt by him. She was often putting herself in this fairy-tale world just to escape the real one she was in. No little kid should have to do that. Naomi goes into the local store in the town to get some info from Earl Strikes who owns the store. Earl is closed off to talking to her as she’s an outsider. She doesn’t get a ton of info from him but learns a bit more about how things run around here. Naomi talks a bit more about her past and presents that she never knew when her birthday was, or where she came from, but Jerome and Ms. Cottle were the only people that actually ever made her feel safe. Jerome brought her out of her closed-out shell, and Ms. Cottle reminded her that she could be loved, and be something great.

Back with Madison, she’s now been allowed to go on hunts with Mr.B in the woods. More privileges means more trust. When he takes her out to hunt (he doesn’t use guns only wire traps) she sometimes has the ability to tie a small thread on a tree to mark where she has been. She ties them low so Mr. won’t see, but this just made me think about how much this girl has the drive to live. Also how smart she is. That morning Jerome calls Naomi and tells her that Ms. Cottle is sick, and Naomi goes to see them. It’s clear when she gets there that there is more of a connection between Jerome and Naomi than just friendly. The two clearly have feelings for each other and this explains why Naomi avoids him so often. She tends to run from her feelings or the things that are good for her. It’s clear she struggles to stay in a space for long out of fear of connecting too deeply to people. It seems that Naomi connects so much to the kids because she wants to give them the opportunity she never had which is being found, knowing who they are and where they come from. Since she doesn’t have this she constantly runs from everything that reminds her of it (people who care for her). Back with Madison, we find out that she’s growing out of the clothes she had on when Mr. took her. He brings her a church donation box of clothes for her, which makes her think she has really started to earn his trust and makes her feel connected to him. It’s clear that Madison starts to suffer from Stockholm syndrome but it’s pretty expected given how young she was when he took her, and all she has to do to keep him happy. Naomi goes hiking through the woods. It’s clear that Naomi is very independent and doesn’t hold a lot of fear of doing this all alone, which it sure would be. She gets herself into a stupid situation by going into an empty old mine shaft alone. She ends up falling down some broken ground and gets stuck. Luckily Ranger Dave is driving by and sees her vehicle on the road, he notices that her alter is sitting in the front seat. Out of freak for her safety, he follows her tracks to the mine where he helps her get out. This made me wonder if Naomi is a bit careless with her life. I mean if she does all of this alone she clearly must not. It’s clear the only value Naomi sees in herself is her ability to find children. Naomi shares it took her a long time to warm up to Ms. Cottle and Jerome and often wouldn’t let people in. It’s clear to Naomi that with how much she has been thinking of the past something is trying to claw its way out, but she keeps sinking herself in distractions to avoid it.

Back with Madison one day when she is out with Mr.B she sees a road. She doesn’t run to it and doesn’t try to act interested in order to keep Mr.B happy. However, that didn’t really help because he’s obviously concerned and gets angry at her and punishes her. It’s clear that Madison wants to leave but knows she can’t, and Mr.B wants to keep it that way. Naomi goes back to talk to the parents and it’s clear that they are clinging onto this fate that she is alive. Naomi takes a book of fairy tales (one being the snow girl) from her parents as a reason to push her further. Naomi then goes to talk to Detective Winfield and learns that there really wasn’t much suspicion on the parents. Then Naomi presents that she is going to take on another case while she works at Madison’s. I am not totally certain what the point of this sub-story in the book was. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t hate it and it brought more mystery in but I wasn’t sure what the need was. Essentially Naomi has been asked by the public defender to look into the case of Danita Danforth who was a low IQ single mother who was accused of killing her child when the child went missing. Danita was unable to tell the police where the last place she had seen her child due to her cognitive abilities. Naomi decides to take it on and see if she can find Danita’s baby, dead or alive.

When Naomi goes back to her hotel Ranger Dave is waiting there for her and asks her to dinner. Naomi finds out that his wife went missing in the woods a few years ago when she went on a hike. Her body was never found. Naomi questions why he stays here knowing she won’t ever come back. He says he stays because he doesn’t want to forget her. This makes Naomi see that there is a different way of living than she does, running from everything. We also get a look into Mr. B as a child. It’s short but it’s clear that he did have parents at one point, people who loved him. Madison continues to earn more of his trust and gains more privileges. Naomi continues to do research on the town and finds a photo of a trapper she has seen around town and an article about a young boy who went missing when he was seven from here. It was many years ago but part of me wondered if this was maybe connected or something. Naomi goes back to Earls and notices he sells toys at his store, and wonders if Madison’s kidnapper would have ever come in here to buy some. Mr. B comes into the store and buys some food. Earl doesn’t know much about him when Naomi asks since she has never seen him before. All Earl knew was that he was deaf, and just spent his days trapping and selling furs. Earl said he thought he may live on an old homestead way up in the mountains, but he has no clue. Naomi brings some names to Detective Winfield that she’s gathered up in the town to see if anything turns up.

Naomi goes back to the jail to talk to Danita. Danita was a good mother but it’s clear the care for her baby was a bit too much for her to handle on her own with her needs. When talking to her Naomi finds out that Danita took her baby around in the stroller but didn’t remember seeing one in the house when she went to talk to her grandmother. Naomi goes to talk to her work and finds out that she would sometimes work the odd Thursday (it was usually her day off) and she did the day the baby went missing. I just felt so sad for Danita. It’s clear she loved her baby so much but was in no state to be in primary care of the baby. She struggled to recall and remember things that didn’t follow her routine which was why she forgot she went to work on the Thursday. That night Naomi gets a call from Jerome that Ms. Cottle has passed. At the funeral, Naomi feels a lot of guilt for not being more present. I just felt bad for Naomi, she clearly beats herself up for running away but at the same time can’t stop herself from doing it because she’s so afraid of herself. Jerome professes her love for her later that day and Naomi does what she does best and runs. Jerome leaves her a note telling her that he is willing to go with her on her work travels, and doesn’t expect her to give it up. He said he will be there for her when she’s ready. I mean a part of me found this kind of weird because they were foster siblings but I just tried to ignore that part and just be happy for them.

When Naomi talks to the detective again she finds out that most of the names she has are dead people. However, one name did bring up a man who was a convicted pedophile. However, he would also be dead. Naomi feels suspicious about this, however, Naomi wonders if he didn’t just pass on his homestead to someone else. I wondered at this point if Mr. B was maybe that missing little boy, and that this Walter pedo guy had taken him. I mean it would make sense why no one would know his name or where he came from. I mean if the little boy was deaf wouldn’t they have found it weird that a little deaf boy went missing and now they have a much older deaf man living in the woods? That night Naomi dreams her dream of running through the field, however, there is another little girl there with her. Since Naomi never responded to Jerome’s letter he considers taking a new job to get a fresh start. Naomi goes to Earls’ shop to ask him if anyone has bought a toy. She finds out a pair of brothers who hunt bought a doll a few months ago which made Naomi suspicious of them. Naomi goes to talk to her parents to find out if that was a toy she would like. Madison’s parents said she wasn’t much of a doll girl and enjoyed spending most of her time outside playing. Naomi goes to the trapper’s brother’s home and finds out the doll was for their sister who is an adult with the mental capacity of a child. I mean we obviously already knew that clearly these boys weren’t Mr. B so I was kind of just skimming through this part.

Naomi the next day decides to go travel to Walter the pedo’s land to see what she could find. She also notices that it isn’t super far from where Madison went missing. Then we get a POV of Mr. B and Madison watching Naomi hike on the mountain below them. Naomi doesn’t find them or anything but Mr.B is worried having seen her on the land. We find out that Mr. B was kept in the same spot as Madison by someone he calls the man, presumably Walter. We find out that once Mr.B got big enough he killed the man. He was so young when he was taken he didn’t know any other life than the one he was living, so he never sought help. Yet he knew he was taken by the man and that a picture of the young him was in the paper. This was when it hit me that the missing boy Naomi saw before was obviously Mr. B. Naomi goes back to see Danita. She realizes when talking to her that Danita took her baby to work with her on Thursday because it was her usual day off and her grandmother was gone. Naomi then realizes what happened. With budget cuts the buses that broke down weren’t getting fixed anymore so she went to the lot where they sat waiting to be fixed. Naomi found out that Danita’s usual bus was there. Sadly Danita forgot her baby on the bus on the day she went to work because it was different from her usual routine. Naomi found her in the bus strapped into her stroller. This made me so sad and I just felt terrible for Danita. She never wanted that for her baby.

That night Naomi dreams. She dreams of the one she left behind, a little girl. When Naomi was running in the field the little girl was with her, and then she wasn’t and Naomi had to leave her behind. Naomi realizes that this little girl is her sister. She tells Jerome about her dream and he encourages her to stop running and search for the real child she has always wanted to find, her sister. I just felt so much for Naomi, she was only a child and it must have been terrible to have to leave her sister behind in the place she was running from. Naomi is of course afraid to open this up any more than it is, but Jerome assures her that he will help. Naomi considers giving up and leaving the search for Madison. Before she goes Earl stops her. He tells her that her questions about the toys got him thinking and he noticed that the deaf trapper had been buying more food lately, and still coming the same amount of times. He also thinks he’s living on Walters land somewhere, maybe higher up in the mountains. So she goes to look. When travelling up there, Naomi notices that there are these little bits of string tied low to the trees leading a path. She follows the path. Naomi doesn’t find the cabin but Mr. B finds the threads when setting a trap. He feels betrayed by Madison and the risk of him hurting her is huge. He knew that Naomi would find them, and he wanted to protect this hidden world he had created. Mr. B plans to set a trap. The next time she goes out she brings Ranger Dave with her in the hopes he can help her find the cabin. Dave falls for the trap which allows Naomi to get away. This also allows time for Dave to get out of the trap. Naomi is able to find the cabin and through a bloody battle takes down Mr. B and saves Madison.

We get a look a year into the future and Madison is okay. She suffers a bit from the past but her creating herself into the snow girl instead of Madison when she was with Mr.B allowed her to return back to the Madison she once was. Naomi calls Madison later to see how she’s doing. Naomi tells her that we have a lead on her sister and are following it. The we insinuating that she finally let Jerome in. She isn’t doing it alone anymore. This ending definitely made me want to check out the next book because I want to know where Naomi came from, and if they find her sister.

I felt like the ending was a bit anti-climactic, but considering we knew who the perpetrator was the whole time it was more so just waiting for Naomi to find him. It was a nice transition into another story which definitely got me because I am going to check it out. I am glad that Naomi isn’t alone anymore, it just seemed like way too sad of a line of work to have no support.

I hope you enjoyed this review and I would love to know what you think. Have you ever checked out this series before? What did you think? Feel free to also connect on Instagram @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when new reviews are dropping.