The Girl on the Beach by Carol Snow is so far the best book I read for 2026. The book will come out June 23, 2026. This is the story.
We meet Sonia and Graham Starr. They have an adorable four-year-old daughter Roxie. As both parents have busy careers, Roxie has a baby sitter.
One day, while the parents are upstairs in their bedroom thinking the alarm is on, Roxie is alone in the beach house downstairs main room. Her baby sitter Colleen is asleep. She is off duty.
Colleen awakes to screaming parents. They cannot find Roxie. Could Roxie have opened the sliding door to the deck, walked onto the beach, and wandered off into the water?
Her new floating device is found further on the beach. Witnesses said they saw a dark head bob in the water until it disappeared.
What follows is how everyone deals with the loss of Roxie. If she drowned, who is to blame? The parents? The alarm was not on. The baby sitter? It was not her turn to watch Roxie. Anyone who did not stop a small child from getting into the water? We see the thoughts and actions of Graham, Sonia, and Colleen in before and after scenes.
Colleen’s carefree college life before Roxie’s disappearance and her mentally spiraling periods of self-blame and anxiety afterwards, will leave your chest tight and eyes laser-focused on the book. Colleen even goes so far to return to the beach house to find answers, clues, anything. She even tries to swim in the ocean part where Roxie would have drowned if that is what happened.
Like Colleen you will wonder, what else was there to do? Those nagging feelings get confirmation as one day someone claimed in the comment section of a paper to have seen a small child like Roxie near a car with another person. Who could have taken her?
Carol Snow wrote a psychological thriller that will keep your brain busy long after you turned the last page. The Girl on the Beach by Carol Snow comes out June 23, 2026.
Note: I received an Advance Reader Copy from Fauzia Burke, Founder of FSB Associates, in exchange for an honest review. My other book reviews are here.
