Wow! This book was fantastic! I’m
honestly a bit of a book snob when it comes to mysteries so I tend to stick with Agatha Christie and I don’t stray from that much, but Girl, 11 sounded intriguing. I’m so glad I gave this book a chance. I was a bit unsure at the beginning because I’m not overly fond of the whole transcript/oral history style of writing, however this book is mainly prose and the podcast transcripts interspersed throughout are actually a great stylistic choice to help advance the story.
The story centres around Elle, the host of a true crime podcast investigating cold cases in Minnesota. The new season of her show is focused on TCK,
The Countdown Killer, who had terrorized the Twin Cities in the late 90s but has been inactive for over 20 years. When an open police investigation begins to align a bit too closely with TCK’s methodology, Elle must try to convince colleagues, friends and family that she’s not merely projecting her podcast research onto a new case.
The book is very gripping and the tension that builds as Elle delves deeper and deeper into the mystery keeps the reader hooked and not wanting to set the book down. I read the book in one sitting (staying awake into the wee hours), because I simply had to know what would happen. There was a really fantastic twist, that I didn’t see coming until halfway through the book. I highly recommend Girl, 11 to any mystery fans especially those like me who often find themselves frustrated by the predicability of many mystery stories. I really hope that Amy Suiter Clarke will write more novels in the future, I’m very eager to see what else she can come up with.
Thank you to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing this eARC for review.
– Hailey