#Review - Stillwater Island by Gregg Olsen #Mystery #Thriller

Series: Detective Megan Carpenter #4
Format: EBook, 360 pages
Release Date: December 7, 2021
Publisher: Bookouture
Source: Publisher
Genre: Mystery / Thriller

“Mommy, I’m scared.” Marlena’s precious boy lies with his little arm thrown over her thigh. It’s pitch-black, and she can hear seagulls. She realizes they must be near water, and a new panic rises in her.

At 2 a.m. one icy winter morning, in the smart suburbs of Jefferson County, local father Ben Parker reports his wife Marlena and their little boy missing.

Rushing to the impressive family home, Detective Megan Carpenter finds the halls adorned with pictures of the beautiful, stay-at-home mom and their bright-eyed son. But that’s not all she finds…

A bottle of prenatal vitamins in the bathroom cabinet reveal that Marlena is pregnant. Why didn’t Ben mention this in his panicked call to the police?

Digging deeper into their seemingly perfect marriage, Megan’s fear begins to grow. The couple are separated, there’s talk of an affair, and the neighbors report loud fights. And then, Megan tracks a young woman believed to be Ben’s secret girlfriend, only to find her lifeless body in a secluded wood.

Ben’s watch lies in the undergrowth, and Megan’s team think she’s cracked the case, but she’s sure something’s not right. Ben’s family has wealth including a private island, and connections in high places. Is someone trying to block their investigation?

As Megan starts to wonder if the answer lies on the Parkers’ closely guarded island, just offshore, a shocking revelation makes her question everything. With a killer on the loose, can Megan find the missing pieces to the most complex case of her career and bring Marlena and her little boy home alive? Or will it be too late to save them?

Stillwater Island is the Fourth installment in author Gregg Olsen's Detective Megan Carpenter's series. When Marlena Parker and her 4-year-old son Bennie go missing, Jefferson County Police Department gets the call. With partner Ronnie Marsh, who is a woman who has shown the depths to her character and her abilities, has become like family for Megan. Especially since her brother Hayden hasn't exactly been open to forgiving her for what she did in the past.

Ben Parker is the husband and father of Marlena and Bennie. The husband is the one to call it in, but turns out the parents are separated and there's a history of domestic violence and accusations of cheating. I have heard of a whole lot of grumblings when it comes to Megan's laser focus on Ben being the villain of the story. In real life, the husband, or boyfriend of the missing area almost always considered primary suspects until the evidence proves other wise. To make matters more twisted, Sheriff Tony Gray, Megan's boss, is Marlena's uncle.

Ben's not especially a good person. Almost no one likes Ben, including his filthy rich father, who literally owns an entire island. When Ben's girlfriend turns up dead, the case against Ben grows even stronger. Who else would have the means and opportunity to pull of this sort of operation? One of the saddest parts of this story is that Bennie is an innocent, and he has asthma. To top things off, Megan finds out that Marlena is expecting another child and time is of the essence to find Marlena and Bennie before it's too late. 

As police procedurals, nothing is what it seems, and it is an adventure to find out who has abducted a mother and her young son. Is Ben really the abductor, or has someone done a great job of setting him up? There are so many enjoyable twists and turns and interesting characters. They dynamics between Megan and Ronnie have grown leaps and bounds over the course of the past 3 installments. I am looking forward to knowing more about Hayden and his past since the author drops hints about what he was doing in the military.

*On a side note, the publisher changed the title of this book from Vanishing Point to Stillwater Island which makes zero  sense. Literally no part of this book takes place anywhere near Stillwater Island.

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