The Next Time You See Me

By: Holly Goddard Jones

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

A debut novel by award-winning author Holly Goddard Jones, about the people surprisingly connected to the discovery of a dead woman’s body in a small town.

Thirteen-year-old Emily Houchens doesn't have many friends. She finds more comfort playing make-believe in the woods near her house in Roma, Kentucky, than with her classmates, who find her strange and awkward. When she happens upon a dead body hidden in the woods one day, she decides not to tell anyone about her discovery—a choice that begins to haunt her.

Susanna Mitchell has always been a good girl, the dutiful daughter and wife. While her older sister Ronnie trolled bars for men and often drove home at sunrise, Susanna kept a neat house, a respectable job, and a young daughter. But when Ronnie goes missing and Susanna realizes that she’s the only person in Roma who truly cares about her sister’s fate, she starts to question her quiet life and its value.

The Next Time You See Me is the story of how one woman’s disappearance exposes the ambitions, prejudices, and anxieties of a small southern town and its residents, who are all connected, sometimes in unexpected ways: Emily; Susanna; Tony, a failed baseball star turned detective, aspiring to be the county’s first black sheriff; and Wyatt, a 55-year-old factory worker tormented by a past he can’t change and by a love he doesn’t think he deserves. Their stories converge in a violent climax that reveals not just the mystery of what happened to Ronnie but all of their secret selves.

©2013 Holly Goddard Jones (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc

Critic reviews

"The residents of a small Kentucky town react to the disappearance of a local woman in this first novel by short-story writer Jones…. [The author] builds intense tension surrounding the choices her flawed but compellingly sympathetic characters make as they fight against lonely isolation within the tight confines of small-town America." (Kirkus Reviews)

Great characters, weak ending

The character development is great. The writing is great. And yet, at the end I felt let down. The novel simply seemed to fizzle (ergo the three stars).

Perhaps that is part of the message. Life, after all, is like that -- all kinds of monumental things seem to matter but, in the end, you realize that they are simply a part of life.

The plot revolves around a woman's disappearance and how every character came in contact with her -- while she was alive and, in the case of some, while her dead body laid abandoned in the woods. However, the story is not about the disappearance -- or even the body. It's about all the human dramas that led each character to that particular point in time. In fact, if you are looking for a "good mystery," this is not for you -- there is not much of one (you know who killed the woman pretty early on and even her disappearance does not seem that mysterious giving the kind of life she led). The story is about what makes people who they are -- acting in character and sometimes, for inexplicable reasons and with heavy consequences, way out of character as well.

Great until the ending leaves you disappointed.

Any additional comments?

I loved the characters and the plot of this book. I don't care if a book has a happy ending or not, but the way this one ends is not satisfactory. All of the coincidences in the book tie together beautifully, except for the final moments. I am still glad that I listened to it, and I enjoyed returning to it each time with curiosity and pleasure.

Mesmerizing

Gillian Flynn's high praise in reviews pulled me in and was what encouraged me to take a chance on this book. I can see why Gillian Flynn enjoyed it for I saw many similarities in their styles.

You will be shocked when I tell you that the ending of this book is the books weakness. It doesn't end badly, just not very inventive, surprising or powerful. Kind of ho hum. Don't let that stop you though. All the other parts of the book are mind blowing. The fact that this is the author's debut novel will have me watching her for years to come.


A large cast of complex and deep characters that range from 13 years old to 60. They are cleverly woven in such an impressive manner. The author really nailed each character "spot on". Cassandra Campbell was just masterful in her narration. Together they really spoke for those characters and brought them to life. Not a weak or boring one in the bunch.

How the author chains one character to another was keen and my favorite part. It's pure art how she did that. The author draws for you one character then hints to you the possible connection to a previous character in such a teasing slow method that allows you to slowly think ahead or assume that you have seen the relationship - sometimes you get ahead of yourself and you are wrong, other times you see it coming. A stunning novel.

Gripping story, depressing characters.

Easy listening to the narrator. Characters are understandably down trodden, almost stuck in their lives with day-to-day repetition.

Bullies, Misfits and Dead Bodies

Jones manages to create a town full of heartbreakingly real characters. The Next Time You See Me reminded me a bit of Stephen King's The Body. In both stories a young person discovers a dead body and uses the discovery to impress their classmates. There is Emily, the middle school girl known as a freak in her school, who indeed turns into a freakish character when she keeps revisiting the dead body she discovered in the woods. She wants to observe the changes as the body decomposes. At school she is mercilessly bullied and taunted.

Meantime, Susanna, Emily's desparately unhappy middle school teacher, tries to discover what happened to her sister who disappears after a night out at the bars. She contacts Joe, her former classmate, now turned detective for help. He is equally isolated by his pain and his race. As they investigate Ronnie's activities leading up to her disappearance, Susanna and Joe rekindle a flame from high school.

Over in the local factory, Wyatt, an overweight older man, provides comic fodder for the young bucks at the plant. However, his life is no joke. His own dog won't even come near him, for he has a horrible secret of his own.

Between the factory, the middle school, Susanna's home and the bleak countryside, this book explores the despair and misery of the town's residents.
Jones does an excellent job of delving into the hearts of the characters to reveal both the good and bad. She made them so real, that I couldn't really condemn even the worst of the deeds committed in this book. So the next time you see any of these characters, you'll know their hearts. The images in this book will haunt you long after you listen to the last word.