Kate White’s newest thriller, “I Came Back for You,” is truly an edge-of-your-seat mystery because she keeps the lid on tight over the killing that is at the center of the story. Bree Winter lives in Uruguay with her partner Sebastian on a chacra, an idyllic farm, nestled near the ocean. But in spite of her happiness with Sebastian, she’s kept a part of her past life hidden. She’s never completely shared what happened when her daughter was murdered during her junior year of college. Now, information surfaces that perhaps the serial killer whom they thought had killed Melanie didn’t do it.
The timing coincides with an event that Carter College, where Melanie attended school, has planned to celebrate a substantial donation Bree’s ex-husband Logan is making. Bree was not planning on attending the event, but with the possibility that Melanie’s killer is still free, Bree decides to return to make sure that her daughter’s murder is being investigated fully.
What follows is not only a whodunit, but also an unflinching look at a mother-daughter relationship that isn’t picture perfect. Bree has felt that she and her daughter never fully connected, and she feels horribly guilty about that. She remembers when her daughter was colicky as an infant and then had a difficult time as a toddler. Her adolescent years were equally problematic, and Melanie never really confided in Bree the way Bree would have wished. Bree lost her own parents when she was relatively young, in her thirties, so she didn’t really have a mother to confide in and ask for advice.
What Logan tells Bree when he shows up unexpectedly at her home in Uruguay is that the serial killer, on his deathbed, confessed to two additional killings and told the authorities where to find the bodies. The killer also stated that he did not kill Melanie. While Bree wants to think he’s lying, when she flies back, the police do show her that Melanie’s killing did differ in a few subtle but important ways from the murders of the other young girls.
What ensues is everything one would hope for in a murder mystery. There is a plethora of suspects, some seeming more likely than others. We are kept guessing about what a motive could be, but slowly, White reveals details that Bree and her husband couldn’t have known; relationships that Melanie had that she necessarily kept in the dark, hidden away from friends and college authorities.
Bree is also desperate to find more of Melanie’s writing, hoping against hope that she will find something to satisfy her need to be redeemed as a mother, to know that her love for Melanie was returned. She wonders why one of Melanie’s professors would not be helpful and, in fact, appears to stymie her desire to find Melanie’s old writing, her poetry, her short stories. There are many suspicious characters because we know that those who seem uninvolved might be connected in ways that we have not yet seen.
White’s brilliant unfolding of the plot, her deft deliverance of the clues, and her ability to make Bree a character we empathize deeply with, all serve to make this a quick and extremely satisfying read. We can’t believe that the answer to who killed Melanie isn’t more straightforward, and we really want a resolution. In addition to the mystery, and to Bree’s feelings of inadequacy as a mother, there is also the question of guilt. Did Bree’s actions in trying to get justice for her daughter’s murder cause the death of another person? This is a mystery that isn’t quickly forgotten. And the partial setting in peaceful Uruguay, where White actually lives for half the year, is compellingly drawn and will certainly make many readers look at Uruguay as a place to visit.
This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.