If you’re like most people, there are two things in books and movies that make you anxious: kids and animals in dangerous situations. There’s something about the innocent being in trouble that touches our innate sense of justice and desire to protect the helpless, so it’s no surprise that we find those situations to be particularly gripping in the books we read. Here are seven thrillers featuring children in peril that’ll keep you turning pages late into the night:
1. Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
Two private investigators must team up with police and a drug dealer to find a kidnapped four-year-old girl. Their search takes them deep into Boston’s drug and gang culture and brings to light a slew of secrets surrounding her history.
2. Remember Mia by Alexandra Burt
Estelle, plagued with postpartum depression and caring for an extremely colicky baby, finds herself in a ditch with a bullet would in her head, and baby Mia is missing. Estelle becomes the primary suspect in Mia’s disappearance, but she simply cannot remember what happened to her baby.
3. In the Woods by Tana French
Detective Rob Ryan is tasked with solving the murder of Katy Devlin, a young girl found dead in the woods…the same woods where something horrible happened to Ryan twenty years earlier. Detective Ryan’s memories of the horrifying event are so deeply repressed that he is incapable of recalling them, yet they may be the key to solving Katy’s murder.
4. One Kick by Chelsea Cain
Kick Lannigan is a former abductee herself, having been kidnapped at age 6 and not returned for five years. Now, at 21, she must use the skills she learned from her abductor to find and rescue two other missing children before it’s too late.
5. Don’t Try to Find Me by Holly Brown
Rachel and Paul Willits find their teenage daughter, Marley, missing, having written “Don’t try to find me” on the white board in her room. Their search reveals the family’s darkest secrets, putting Rachel in a suspicious light and leaving you wondering if Marley is watching this all unfold from afar.
6. The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
When her best friend Evie goes missing, 13 year old Lizzie Hood tries to solve the mystery as to her whereabouts on her own, learning far more about Evie than she’d ever imagined and wondering if she ever truly knew her.
7. What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan
Rachel Jenner loses her 8 year old son Ben in a park, and the ensuing search brings to light many of her own secrets and leaves her feeling as though she can trust no one, even those closest to her.
If you’re tired of getting a good night’s sleep, you may want to pick up one of these to keep you reading all night long!
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Featured image via Daily Times
h/t BookBub Blog