Hazel Cho has undergone a lot to become a private investigator, but the job’s not all it’s cracked up to be. When an incident with a male client leaves her shaken, she’s at her wits’ end—until a wealthy socialite named Madeline Hemsley shows up at her office, hoping to hire her to find her goddaughter Mia. In fact, Hazel isn’t the first PI Madeline has hired, but everyone else failed to deliver any news. She gives Hazel about ten days to find Mia and a 48-hour probationary period to send her an update, with a huge reward Hazel would be foolish to refuse if she wants to keep her struggling practice.
Without missing a beat, Hazel drives upstate to Saint Agnes Children’s Home, where Mia used to live. But after a cop stops her on the way and casually mentions the Home’s history of disappearing girls, it raises all sorts of alarms. At the Home, she meets with the administration, but Headmaster Thomas Mackenzie ices her out when she asks too many probing questions. Even the local police force is tight-lipped, except for one officer who seems genuine about helping Mia get justice. As the clock continues to tick, Hazel realizes one thing: She can’t trust anyone, not even Mia’s godmother. Not only does Hazel need to get to the truth and save the girls before it’s too late; she needs to protect herself from the people trying to silence her.
In Daniel G. Miller’s THE ORPHANAGE BY THE LAKE, Hazel’s determination to uncover the huge conspiracy surrounding this orphanage is impressive, especially given how quickly she needs to find Mia’s whereabouts and the lack of cooperation she receives. Her dogged approaches to refuting stereotypes about how weak female PIs are and refusing to cower from men in power are refreshing and admirable to track. After a traumatic encounter with a man earlier in the story, Hazel says to herself, “I want to leave, run to my apartment, toss on sweatpants, and shut the door and cry. But if you want to be a female private investigator, you don’t have that luxury. That’s what they want. They want you to be afraid. They want you to quit.” That’s exactly what she doesn’t do, and why she fights for these missing girls: so that they’re not forgotten about and cast aside just because they don’t have families to return to.
Where Hazel falters, however, is in letting her guard down too easily during an active, possibly criminal investigation. Instead of being suspicious of everyone, she quickly relents and confides a little too much in other people to get information—whether it’s the school administrator who invites her to a party so she can interrogate the faculty again; the handsome man with a longstanding relationship with the children’s home; or in other, more potentially dangerous contexts. Part of this has to do with the lack of confidantes in her life who can be voices of reason. While she’s close to her roommate Kenny, his crush on her often overshadows his concern—as she assumes he’s just insecure about losing her. And while Hazel talks to her mom regularly, they’re not close enough for Hazel to share her concerns without hearing “I told you so.”
Despite the lack of development for Hazel as an individual versus a PI, the story shines most in its high-stakes plot—replete with car chases, abandoned buildings, and creepy hitmen. THE ORPHANAGE BY THE LAKE is also told in first person, with descriptive writing that captures the ominous atmosphere of the novel and chapters that open with a countdown to Madeline’s looming deadline. This structure adds a sense of urgency to the story, compounded by the fact that a three-month-old case is near impossible to solve in just a few days.
It all culminates in a dramatic twist that readers may see coming but still manages to be tense. The big reveal is a little too rushed—since, after Hazel uncovers the truth, she leaves behind a lot of unanswered questions about the motives behind the disappearances. Instead, there is a quick recap about the case’s aftermath without any detailed account of the missing girls, where they were taken all this time, and their own traumas—all of which leave the ending a bit unfulfilling. Nevertheless, the book successfully tells the story of a woman empowered to push back against gender norms in a male-dominated profession and fight to protect the victims of a dangerous conspiracy
Daniel G. Miller’s THE ORPHANAGE BY THE LAKE is a chilling, nail-biting thriller about a chase for the truth when everyone else has failed.
~K. Nesa for IndieReader