The fate of 20-year-old college student Nina Fraser propels the enthralling What Happened to Nina? as Australian author Dervla McTiernan's fifth novel explores parental love and obsession, toxic social media, and entitlement.
The novel opens with Nina recounting her life until this point. She reveals her relationship with Simon Jordan, her boyfriend since she was 16, as well as his controlling nature, and explains why she didn't end their abusive relationship sooner.
What happened to Nina becomes the driving question when Simon returns home alone after he and Nina go rock climbing on his wealthy family's massive vacation property in Vermont. Simon claims he left Nina at the cabin after they broke up because she was cheating on him. Nina's parents, Leanne and Andy, report their daughter missing, but the police don't believe Simon's explanation. His parents, Rory and Jamie, close ranks, hiring a manipulative public relations firm to discredit the Frasers and depict Simon as a caring person who was in love with an unstable Nina. True-crime aficionados use social media to make it seem like the Frasers are responsible for Nina's disappearance, accusations aided by the distraught Leanne's erratic behavior.
McTiernan (The Murder Rule) shows the families' devastation and illustrates how far parents will go for their children, even when they know their child isn't a good person, in this painfully fascinating thriller. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer