Hey, it’s Diego.

I just finished reading Dear Mother by Rea Frey.

And it follows a woman going back to find out what really happened decades ago.

In these kinds of thrillers, the protagonist has to dig into events from decades ago, and it's the kind of setup where every new detail changes what you thought you knew.

Let me show you my favorites.

Digging Up the Past Thrillers

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

A true crime writer gets snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where decades earlier two people were murdered, and a girl disappeared, when she discovers a small child in the snow outside.

In The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf, we follow Wylie as she pieces together what happened at the farmhouse all those years ago while dealing with the mystery unfolding right now.

A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison

Best-selling author Columbia Jones dies under strange circumstances. Her daughter and a journalist start pulling at threads, and the woman everyone admired turns out to be someone else entirely.

In A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison, we follow Darian as she digs into who her mother really was, one secret at a time.

Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead

Dr. Willa Watters reluctantly returns to her childhood home in Louisiana, only for a decades-old mystery involving a serial killer and family secrets to pull her in.

Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead has a similar setup to Dear Mother: a woman going back to the place she grew up to confront what happened there.

And the newest addition to the list:

Dear Mother by Rea Frey

Isabelle is an investigative journalist who has spent her adult life running from her childhood. When her estranged mother dies, she returns to Cedarloch to settle the estate. She was thirteen when her three foster siblings died in a fire at the family home. The blaze was ruled an accident, but twenty-five years later, new autopsy reports cast fresh suspicion on her mother. With help from her ex, Isabelle starts digging. What really happened the night of the fire?

Dear Mother by Rea Frey is a domestic thriller set in the Pacific Northwest.

Frey's writing is functional. Dialogue flows naturally, and descriptions are enough to paint a picture.

We follow Isabelle in a single POV with flashbacks, with the present-day investigation running alongside flashback chapters from other characters' perspectives that fill in what happened in the past.

The story takes its time to build. There isn't much initially to get the story rolling. Isabelle goes back to her mother's house to get it cleaned up to sell it on, then she gets curious as to her mother's motive for death. But she hasn't seen or talked to her mother in twenty years, so it's not like she's that invested. Things escalate eventually, and there are thrills as well as tension as she discovers new information through her investigation.

Isabelle is a proactive protagonist, driving the plot forward with her journalist instincts. She asks questions, follows leads, and pushes back when people try to shut her out. This made for an engaging read because the plot moves when she moves. I did feel that the way the story was plotted was somewhat clunky in parts. We get a lot of instances where Isabelle will go to a place, leave, and then immediately come back. There was a lot of back and forth that could have been streamlined.

There is some romance with her ex, who helps with the investigation. It stays in the background and doesn't take over. There are no explicit scenes and no swearing. But although there is no graphic violence described directly, violent events are implied and referenced.

So, what about the ending? (No spoilers, obviously)

Things wrapped up in a satisfying way, with the mystery resolved and the truth about her mother finally laid bare. The denouement was good, long enough to paint a picture of where Isabelle lands once the dust settles but not too long that would overstay its welcome.

Dear Mother by Rea Frey is a solid domestic thriller around a daughter uncovering who her mother really was. If you enjoy proactive protagonists and mysteries that unfold through investigation, you'll like this one.

Latest Updates

• Netflix announced a Myron Bolitar series from Harlan Coben. Bolitar is a sports agent-turned-investigator who has appeared in twelve of Coben's novels. If McFadden is becoming the queen of movie adaptations, Coben is becoming the king of TV shows.

That’s all for this week. See you next time.

— Diego Dunne

P.S. Let me know how I did today by replying to this email.

P.P.S. I would love to hear your recommendations for thrillers you loved. Reply to this email, and I’ll add them to my TBR list. Thanks!

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