The butterfly girl : a novel / Rene Denfeld.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A heartbreaking, finger-gnawing, and yet ultimately hopeful novel by the amazing Rene Denfeld." --Margaret Atwood, via Twitter

After captivating readers in The Child Finder, Naomi--the investigator with an uncanny ability for finding missing children--returns, trading snow-covered woods for dark, gritty streets on the search for her missing sister in a city where young, homeless girls have been going missing and turning up dead.

From the highly praised author of The Child Finder and The Enchanted comes The Butterfly Girl, a riveting novel that ripples with truth, exploring the depths of love and sacrifice in the face of a past that cannot be left dead and buried. A year ago, Naomi, the investigator with an uncanny ability for finding missing children, made a promise that she would not take another case until she finds the younger sister who has been missing for years. Naomi has no picture, not even a name. All she has is a vague memory of a strawberry field at night, black dirt under her bare feet as she ran for her life.

The search takes her to Portland, Oregon, where scores of homeless children wander the streets like ghosts, searching for money, food, and companionship. The sharp-eyed investigator soon discovers that young girls have been going missing for months, many later found in the dirty waters of the river. Though she does not want to get involved, Naomi is unable to resist the pull of children in need--and the fear she sees in the eyes of a twelve-year old girl named Celia. Running from an abusive stepfather and an addict mother, Celia has nothing but hope in the butterflies--her guides and guardians on the dangerous streets. She sees them all around her, tiny iridescent wisps of hope that soften the edges of this hard world and illuminate a cherished memory from her childhood--the Butterfly Museum, a place where everything is safe and nothing can hurt her.

As danger creeps closer, Naomi and Celia find echoes of themselves in one another, forcing them each to consider the question: Can you still be lost even when you've been found? But will they find the answer too late?

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Thirty-year-old private investigator Naomi Cottle returns in Denfeld's gripping follow-up to 2017's The Child Finder, continuing her search for the sister she left behind when she fled captivity as a child. It won't be easy: Naomi remembers nothing of the time before or during her captivity, not even her sister's name. A series of recent murders of street kids has piqued her interest, and during her investigation in Portland, Ore., Naomi meets 12-year-old Celia, who is living on the streets after her stepfather was acquitted for sexually molesting her; Celia is terrified that he'll do the same to her little sister, Alyssa. Celia finds solace in the butterflies that live in her vivid imagination, in her friendship with fellow street kid Rich, and eventually, in Naomi, whose harrowing search--to which Celia may hold the key--leads to a predator who targets society's most vulnerable. Denfeld depicts the bleak lives of street kids in heart-wrenching detail; the realities of homelessness are rendered in stark language, a striking juxtaposition against Celia's fantasy world. Denfeld emphasizes throughout that even where there is horror, there is still hope, a theme borne out in the bittersweet conclusion. Readers will be enthralled. (Oct.)

Booklist Review

In Denfeld's second Naomi Cottle novel, the investigator is deeply obsessed by a mystery embedded in The Child Finder (2017): that of her own missing sister, whom Naomi hasn't seen since escaping captivity as a child, and can scarcely remember. Putting up signs in Portland's skid row, Naomi meets 12-year-old Celia and her group of fellow street kids. Celia, abused by her stepfather and then by the legal system that refused to believe her, conjures butterflies to help in her hardest moments, and is initially wary of outsider Naomi. Meanwhile, Naomi's search for her sister consumes her, even in the face of evil occurring right under her feet. The bodies of missing young street girls are being found in the river, and not even the FBI has any leads. Denfeld's career as a public defense investigator clearly informs her insight into Naomi's hunger for the truth and elucidates Celia's past and life on the streets. Her depictions of women and girls surviving horrific conditions through the power of their own imaginations will stay with readers.--Annie Bostrom Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

An investigator who specializes in locating missing children turns her attention to a case closer to home.After introducing Naomi Cottle to readers in The Child Finder (2017), Denfeld has brought back the tough-but-fragile searcher to explore her origins. As a girl, Naomi was held captive with her sister in a bunker in rural Oregon; one day, Naomi escaped and ran to safety and was eventually taken in by a foster mother. But Naomi was never reunited with the sister she had to leave behind, and now, 20 years on, without even the ability to remember her sister's name, Naomi is trying to find her, starting with the street community in Portland. She's especially drawn to one girl she meets, Celia, a 12-year-old who's been homeless since reporting her stepfather for sexual abuse only to see him acquitted and able to move back into the family home, where Celia's younger sister still lives. Despite the fact that Celia is living on the streets at the same time as young homeless women are being murdered and dumped into the river, she feels safer there than at home thanks to the refuge she takes in the local library and in her imagination, where she obsesses over butterflies and the freedom they represent. As she works to recover her sister, gain Celia's trust, and uncover the serial killer, Naomi serves to remind us of the message of all of Denfeld's work: "People stop existing once you forget them"and no person deserves to be forgotten. If Denfeld would ease up a bit on the sentimentality, this message could shine through all the more.A humane, though frequently mawkish, look at a system where too many fall through the cracks. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.