Acclaimed YA author Warman's latest follows 17-year-old Sam, whose family moves back to the town where her little sister, Turtle, was abducted 10 years ago on New Year's Eve, 1986, from the room where Sam and her best friend were sleeping. Thrown back into her old environment, Sam starts to see the events differently and question whether the convicted kidnapper r older sister Gretchen's boyfriend, Steven s wrongfully accused. With chapters alternating between 1986 and 1996, as well as interspersed snippets from Forty-Eight Minutes of Doubt, a true-crime book about Turtle's abduction and subsequent trial, Warman reveals pieces of what happened from various perspectives, and the slow boil of the earlier chapters builds toward a major reveal in the final quarter. Readers anticipating a lurid thriller may be disappointed, though what Warman provides instead is equally, and more powerfully, engrossing: a deeper exploration into the long-term ramifications a child abduction wreaks upon a family. A suspenseful and haunting look at the uncertainty of memory.

Gr 9 Up-It only took a few moments for Sam's life to change forever. On New Year's Eve, 1986, Sam, seven, and her best friend and neighbor, Remy, are the only witnesses to the abduction of Sam's little sister, Turtle, age four. In the aftermath, the two children struggle to tell police everything they remember. In the end, Sam's older sister's boyfriend is convicted and her family is devastated as her sister is never found. Sam's family eventually moves away only to return 10 years later to try and reconcile themselves with the tragedy that still haunts them. Their return brings back memories for Sam as she reconnects with Remy and she begins to wonder: did they tell the truth that fateful night? Is the wrong man in jail? The story unfolds through flashbacks, excerpts from a true crime book written about the case, and events during the summer of 1996. However, the eventual denouement is too rushed, leaving more questions than answers. Sam is a sympathetic character, but readers never really get to know her, despite being in her head for most of the book. The characters' motivations and development is haphazard, and while the story contains lots of tension that fans of the genre will love, the ending may leave them frustrated. This fragmented tale doesn't feel fully stitched together. VERDICT A tense ride of a story that fails to deliver. Necia Blundy, formerly at Marlborough Public Library, MA

New Year's Eve, 1986: Seven-year-old Samantha and her best friend and neighbor, Remy, are downstairs in the family basement with Samantha's four-year-old sister, Turtle. All of the adults are upstairs partying the night away. Sometime after midnight, Samantha and Remy witness a horrific act: Turtle is kidnapped while they watch helplessly. In a matter of minutes, Sam and Remy rush upstairs and tell the inebriated adults what they saw; eventually identifying the man they thought took Turtle and sending him to jail. Summer, 1996: Samantha and her family return to the house from which Turtle was taken. It has been ten years since that awful night, and her family and all the neighbors have never been the same. Now seventeen, Samantha is spending her summer helping Remy's mother clean out her family's basement. As the summer drags on, she starts to wonder if she and Remy were right about the person they helped to put in jail. What if it was not who they originally thought?The Last Good Day of the Year is a chilling story about a family and town that are torn apart by tragedy. Readers will experience first-hand what Sam and Remy witnessed, and work with Sam as she recounts the facts and clues from that horrible night and the years that follow. It is a chilling story that will appeal to readers who enjoy mystery and suspense. It is a solid addition to library collections.Loryn Aman.