The Child Finder

Critics Review

• Poetic… Redemptive… Unflinching

  FINANCIAL TIMES

• A moving tale of resilience and hope in the face of the worst of humanity

  DAILY EXPRESS

• A compelling blast of cold air from the wintry woods, with elements of a dark fairytale

  OBSERVER

• The sense of physical and psychological isolation is palpable in this moving exploration of loss, hope and human resilience

  GUARDIAN

• Denfeld’s haunting, disquieting and tension-filled tale is brilliantly told

  IRISH INDEPENDENT

• A truly mesmerising and deeply moving story

  HEAT

• Part mystery, part fairy tale, this is also a real white-knuckle read where the suspense ratchets up to almost unbearable proportions

  CANDIS MAGAZINE

• Rene Denfeld has a gift for shining bright light in dark places. The Child Finder is a gorgeous, haunting gem of a novel. Raw and real yet wrapped in a fairy tale, as lovely and as chilling as the snow

  Erin Morgenstern, NYT bestselling author of THE NIGHT CIRCUS

• A darkly luminous story of resilience and the deeply human instinct for survival, for love. Blending the magical thinking of childhood, of fairy tales, dreams, memories and nightmares, The Child Finder is a terrifying and ultimately uplifting novel that demands to be consumed and then once inside you – lingers…

  A.M. Homes, author of MAY WE BE FORGIVEN

• A glittering gem of a story – part mystery, part fairy tale, and all white-knuckled, edge-of-your-seat thriller . . . readers will be drawn in by Denfeld’s lyrical prose and undone by the brutal reality that Naomi uncovers, just beneath the snowy forest floor

  Library Journal

• Denfeld is a Portland-based journalist and private investigator, and also the adoptive mother of three foster children. All of these aspects of her life are mined in The Child Finder, a powerful novel about a search for a missing girl that’s also a search for identity…. It’s “Deliverance” encased in ice… Denfeld’s novel is indeed loaded with suspense, its resonance comes from its surprising tilt towards storytelling restraint, a rarity in this typical crackling genre. Elegiac, informative and disquieting… The novel gallops to a suitably heart-racing finish

  New York Times Book Review

• The story takes you forward on a fast-paced search and recovery, one that keeps you turning the pages. Imminent danger is palpable, keeping you reading, while the mystery is deep and full of angst and loneliness. Danger and urgency are the prevailing worries….If you enjoy mystery, romance, danger and some darkness you will love this story. This work takes you on a journey and keeps you turning the pages until the truth comes out. The characters will stay with you a long time

  Seattle PI

• Giving voice to those who are metaphorically or even literally voiceless, Rene Denfeld reminds us that consequences continue, aftermath continues – yet we must somehow find ways of holding on to threads of hard-won hope

  San Francisco Chronicle

• A gripping page-turner

  Real Simple magazine

• A hauntingly beautiful, chilling novel by a real-life badass heroine (Rene Denfeld is, among other things, a licensed investigator and foster-adoptive parent), The Child Finder turns around a woman named Naomi, a private investigator with a gift for finding lost children, and her search for a girl who has been missing in the Oregon woods for three years. Denfeld brings Naomi to life with precise, lyrical prose. While the whole book reads like a fairytale for adults, Naomi herself is fully realized and deeply human

  CrimeReads