It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.
Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington state.
But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.
I’m always on the lookout for that pitch-perfect dark thriller, and Emiko Jean’s THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK checked nearly all the boxes for me. I understand that Jean is a really successful YA writer, but this is my first experience with her work (this might be her first adult novel, if I’m not mistaken) & I’m pretty well blown away.
There’s something so inherently moody about the Pacific Northwest, and right away this book’s setting becomes a huge factor: the imposing forests of Washington state, & the rugged coastline are as beautiful as they are dangerous in this book.
Our main character is Detective Chelsey Calhoun, and our story takes place in Coldwell, Washington (I believe the town is fictional). Chelsey is Japanese, adopted into a white family as a baby. Her late father was in law enforcement, and Chelsey has followed in his footsteps.
Chelsey is married to a man named Noah, but like so many of the great fictional detectives, she seems way more married to the work.
And her latest case is about to drive her to the very brink: the reemergence of a young woman named Ellie Black, who disappeared two years ago without a trace.
The case feels immediately personal to Chelsey, having lost her own sister in an abduction 15 years prior.
We learn a lot about what happened to Ellie via her POV chapters, written in the first person & taking us through her ordeal. But in the present, Ellie is extremely traumatized & therefore reluctant to cooperate with Chelsey’s investigation. But the clock is ticking, because while Ellie has returned alone, she’s not the only girl who has been abducted.
This is a really character driven story, one that takes a deep dive into the trauma and aftermath of violence. Ellie’s disappearance and subsequent return has sent shockwaves through her family, and through the whole town.
There’s one (tiny) part of this book that bugged me & it involves a dog. So HERE IS YOUR DOG-RELATED SPOILER WARNING. I don’t want to get too far into the weeds talking about the circumstances around Ellie‘s disappearance, but where she was being held, there are some dogs. And while the dogs aren’t very well treated, they also aren’t a very big part of the story. But there is one dog. A kind of special dog. One that does play a very pivotal role at a very critical moment in the story. And then…it just honestly feels like the author straight up forgot about the dog? There was just no resolution given, not even a slight hint about this dog’s fate. I kind of stared at the last page of the book, thinking surely I missed something…but no, the dog gets no further mention. Anyway, not a deal breaker on my overall enjoyment here, just something that definitely irked me.
I really loved THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK. The tone of the book was exactly what I was looking for & it’s so well written. Chelsey is a compelling lead and I’m really excited to see she’s coming back in BEFORE YOU WERE ANNE this October! This one had me staying up way too late turning the pages, and trying to brace for the next big twist or break in the case. A really solid, moody, and emotional thriller!
Grimdark Dad 