Book Reviews: All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

It has been almost a year since Isabelle Drake’s toddler son, Mason was taken from his crib in the middle of the night while Isabelle and her husband Ben slept in the next room. Over the last year, Isabelle has been functioning on minimal sleep and has left no stone unturned in trying to find her son – hounding the police who have been unsuccessful in finding any clues, giving interviews and investigating the backgrounds of her friends and neighbors and attendees of the true-crime conferences she attends. Despite her initial reluctance she also agrees to participate in a true-crime podcast hosted by Waylon Spencer, who has been successful in solving a cold case in the past and who was one of the attendees at a conference in which Isabelle speaks about her son’s disappearance. Isabelle's marriage has fallen apart after Mason’s disappearance and her husband Ben has apparently accepted that Mason is never coming home. He has moved on and is now involved with another woman. But nothing has deterred Isabelle from her efforts to find her child.

As the narrative progresses we are taken back to Isabelle’s childhood and the traumatic events that have haunted her throughout her life – events for which Isabelle holds herself responsible. We also get to know more about her relationship with her husband Ben – how they met, their marriage, and subsequent events. While Isabelle tries to zero in on possible suspects, often acting impulsively in confronting those whom she suspects, it becomes clear that she is also a suspect in her son’s disappearance in the eyes of the police and others around her. With no one above suspicion and over a year since Mason was taken, will Isabelle be able to figure out what happened on that fateful night? Who took Mason? Is he still alive? Who can she trust to help her? Can she even trust her own memories of that night?

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham is an absorbing read! Suspense and twists, lies and deception, flawed characters and an intriguing well-structured plot make for an engaging psychological thriller. The narrative is shared completely from Isabelle’s PoV and moves back and forth between the present day with flashbacks from her relationship with Ben and chapters devoted to her childhood. I wasn't the biggest fan of Stacy Willingham’s previous novel, A Flicker in the Dark , but I thoroughly enjoyed All the Dangerous Things. Though the pace does wane in parts, I enjoyed the plot development and the twists and turns along the way. Though the primary mystery is that of Mason’s disappearance, a lot is going on in Isabelle’s life and the author seamlessly weaves past events into the primary narrative and expertly brings it all together in the end. The author touches upon themes of trauma, marriage, motherhood and mental health in this story. I won’t say that the end wasn’t entirely unpredictable but I was definitely surprised by how we got there. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Many thanks to Stacy Willingham, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eGalley of this engrossing novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book is due to be released on January 10, 2022.