Finished: The Child Finder (Denfeld) A suspenseful, thought-provoking, page-turner of a book! Naomi is a nearly thirty year old woman whose job and mission in life is to find missing children. Her current case involves five year old Madison Culver who went missing deep in the snowy Oregon woods when she ran ahead of her parents as they were out to find a Christmas tree. It has been three years now, and Madison's parents are convinced she is still alive and that someone has her. The story flashes back and forth between a few point of views...mostly Naomi's and the snow girl's. The snow girl is, of course, Madison, who was found nearly frozen to death by a deaf and mute mountain-man trapper. He takes Madison back to his cabin, nurses her back to health, but also keeps her locked in his basement. We come to find out that he was kidnapped as a seven year old boy by a horrific pedophile, and brought to this very cabin. Beaten and sexually abused, eventually as a young adult, he got the courage up to kill his tormentor. He had been so physically and psychologically damaged, and stunted in how to socialize with people, that he remained living the cabin by himself for years until he stumbled across Madison. Then, he did all he had ever known, and though he treated Madison better than he was treated, she became his possession and he abused her sexually. Madison, upon awaking away from her parents, felt herself thawing out from freezing and immediately decided that she must be the snow girl from her fairy tale book, and that Mr. B, as she came to call him, was her creator. Though she definitely suffered a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, she also knew deep down that she had a family somewhere, and once Mr. B started taking her out with him to do animal trapping, she began leaving little threads from her sweater tied to low tree branches in case she ever needed a pathway out of the cabin if she escaped. Meanwhile, Naomi continues her searching. She has demons of her own. She was also taken as a child, but she remembers nothing but running from an underground prison, across a strawberry field, towards a fire where some migrant workers took her to the sheriff. There were no parents who claimed her as missing, so she was brought up by a loving, kind foster mother. She has nightmares about what happened, and each missing child that she finds, whether living or dead, helps her towards realizing her own past. Eventually she remembers that she also had a little sister with her, and that they ran as fast as they could across the field, but when she turned to tell her that they made it, her little sister wasn't there....she had not kept up. Naomi refuses to give up on Madison, and through methodical work, looking at years old claim records of hunting cabins, and diligent searching, finally finds the colorful threads! Through a very suspenseful portion of the book, where Mr. B knows she's coming and sets a trap, and through Naomi and Mr. B having an all out physical fight, and through Madison working her way out of the basement trap door, Mr. B is killed by a knife that Madison hands Naomi. Madison is reunited with her parents, and stays in touch with Naomi. Naomi sets off in search of her next missing child...her little sister! Not very pleasant subject material, but it's not graphic. It's more about defeating the kidnapper and not letting the experience ruin the lives of the victims. And, wow, it was, as I said...a page-turner!