Review: Not Our Daughter by Chad Zunker

                                                               

Print Length: 236 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (February 11, 2025)

From Goodreads.com: Thirteen years ago, Cole and Lisa Shipley were fostering an infant with hopes of adopting her. Overnight everything was turned upside down, when the child’s mother bled to death on their front doorstep. Her last He’s coming here…for her! Save her. Afraid, bewildered, and with a baby in their arms, they fled. The longer they hid, the guiltier they looked.

Now in a small Colorado town under assumed identities, they’ve been seemingly safe. But when a tip exposes them and Cole is framed for another murder, they take it on the run again, barreling across the western US—this time with a confused and resistant teenage girl awakening to a terrifying new reality. In the rearview is the relentless FBI agent who has never given up the hunt. And he’s not the only one.

Every frightening mile brings a family closer to the truth about that fateful night thirteen years ago. And to a killer who’s determined to finish what he started.

  

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I really wanted this to be a five star review. And honestly, the potential was there, but sometimes the characters just did the stupidest things ever, and that pulled me right out of the story and instead of wanting them to succeed, I wanted them to fail. And this goes for all of the characters. 

To begin with, we have Cole and Lisa who have been on the run for the past 13 years with Jade, the baby they had been fostering shortly before her mother was killed. Despite providing the police with video evidence showing that someone else was at their house that night, the police believe that Cole murdered Jade's mother after their foster-to-adopt plan fell through. At first glance, these two appear to have everything together. They have several backup plans should they be found, and the money in which to start over again. However, right off the bat they make two very stupid mistakes. One, Cole shaves his head and beard so to look dramatically different, but leaves the clippings behind so that they are quickly found by the FBI agent heading up the case and he can immediately put the word out.

The second mistake they make is that they don't bother to tell their "daughter" the truth. That she isn't really their daughter, or that she might be in grave danger. So understandably, when they are found and realize that they have to move, Jade doesn't understand the urgency. Or the need for secrecy, which of course as any fourteen year old girl would do, she calls her boyfriend and tells him where they are just as soon as they have finally escaped town after telling her mother she just needs to use the restroom. 

The funny thing about that, is later on Jade tells her mother the same exact thing, and she once again lets her daughter go off alone (because apparently she learned nothing from the first time, nor did she stop and think about the manhunt that was underway to find them). So of course, Jade sees the police's version of events, believes them and takes off. I mean perhaps in the grand scheme of things, it was a good thing she did what with a bumbling so-called hitman on their trail (seriously he tried to shoot Cole several times and missed each time, only grazing him once or twice) as well as the FBI agent who has had years to figure out this case and didn't.

Their trip to Austin was even more confusing. How was it that Cole was able to unearth secrets from that time period about Jade's birth mother that the police were unable to find? I get that he and his wife were the prime suspects as they went on the run with the baby immediately after, but surely the police still should have talked to the sister? Especially once they were given the footage of another man being at the house that night. It just made them look incompetent, a look that was only amplified by Cole coming back years later and essentially solving the crime for them. 

However, this was a quick and entertaining read if not a little bit too predictable in a lot of ways. And while I felt the characters often made a variety of stupid mistakes, the story itself was well put together. I would give this author another chance.

 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.