All the Dangerous Things: The gripping new psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark

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Now things are even worse. It’s been a year since her toddler was taken from his crib in the night, and six months since her husband Ben left her. He thinks she needs to move on, but Isabelle can’t and won’t rest until she finds their son Mason. After she speaks at a true crime con, podcaster Waylon Spencer offers to let her tell her story. After all, there are still some who think SHE’S behind Mason’s disappearance, and a tragic event from her past isn’t helping. I'm a firm believer in "less is more" when it comes to writing. Think of Iain Reid: he can bring all the spooky vibes without winding similes and melodramatic run-on sentences. If you can elicit emotion from the reader with sparse prose, that's talent. Moaning on and on and on about "me sad, me depressed, me wounded like a baby bird who dropped 30000 feet from the sky during a stage 5 hurricane" in hopes the reader might be like... maybe I should be sad here?? is not talent. In the present day – the police and the family are no further forward, and Isabelle begins to tell her story of the sleepless nights and anguish she feels because there are still no suspects, no answers and no one is any nearer to finding Mason. Detective Dozier comes by and tells Isabelle that no old man lives in the house with the view of her yard. Just Paul Hayes, a guy on parole for minor drug infractions.

Isabelle Drake is exhausted and hasn't slept in nearly a year since her toddler son, Mason, was taken during the night. The detectives have no leads so Isabelle spends her time doing research and conducting her own interviews even though the detective has warned her not too. Her obsession with finding Mason is also the reason her marriage to Ben deteriorated. It would seem trauma follows Isabelle though!!! However, there is also something about Ben, who is now in the arms and bed of another women. The same situation Isabelle found herself in when she met Ben because he was already married then too. Although events took care of themselves when Ben’s first wife commits suicide. Isabelle Drake can’t sleep. Even as a child she struggled with what happened after she closed her eyes at night. Her repeated sleepwalking episodes were a mystery to her parents and troubling to her little sister, Margaret, who adored her big sister but was frightened by these behaviors.

All the Dangerous Things" is a story about mental health and motherhood. It's told in two timelines, now and in 1999 from a sleep-deprived mother seeking answers. There are many twists and surprises along the way which I much prefer over the reveals unloaded in the last few chapters. I was completely blindsided by this one and all theories I had were tossed out the window. Loooved when this happens!! Isabelle visits Ben in prison, as he’s been arrested for the murder of Valerie. He claims to be innocent. Isabelle asks Ben how Valerie knew the baby monitor batteries were dead. She asked Ben how Allison died.

A young boy goes missing from his bedroom while his parents, Isabelle and Ben, are sleeping. Less than a year after his abduction, Isabelle and Ben, separate as they struggle to come to the acceptance of his disappearance. Isabelle continues her desperate search for answers alone. On her flight home to Savannah, Isabelle sits next to Waylon, a true crime podcaster. He gives her his card and asks if he can interview her. She says she is not interested. Isabelle remembers the night Margaret died. She woke up smelling like the marsh. Her parents told her to lie and say she’d been asleep. Isabelle avoids Waylon. She wonders if he’s been searching her house. She watches more of the baby monitor footage and sees herself sleepwalking.However, Isabelle refuses to give up on her son, and her life becomes consumed by her desperate search for him. Plagued by insomnia, she barely sleeps as she relentlessly pursues any possible clue to Mason’s whereabouts. All the Dangerous Things is much more than a crime story about a toddler’s disappearance; it’s an examination of motherhood and the expectations of women—the making of a family and the secrets that break them. Where does All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham take place? As awful as it will be to say I didn't care about Isabelle. In fact, I disliked her quite a bit so with her being the sole narrator this book was doomed from the start. I remember his lips feeling salty and soft... This is where I threw in the towel for good. You cannot FEEL salty. His lips can TASTE salty. Unless you meant his lips felt grainy, which seems unpleasant, and doesn't fit the context of this ~~romantic~~ scene. Feeling salty... foh!!!