Not Our Daughter: A Thriller
Suspense/Thriller
Setting – Colorado/Texas
Publisher : Thomas & Mercer (February 11, 2025)
Paperback : 240 pages
ISBN-10 : 1662516215
ISBN-13 : 978-1662516214
Kindle ASIN : B0CWZCL3G4
Audiobook ASIN B0DBM9FNZS
Propelled on a cross-country chase, devoted parents become desperate fugitives in a heart-racing novel of suspense by the author of Family Money and All He Has Left.
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 words: 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.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
He’s coming here…for her! Save her.
That’s what the mother of the baby Cole and Lisa Shipley have been fostering says as she was bleeding to death on their doorstep. Unsure of what to do and no time to think Cole and Lisa take the baby and disappear. They are immediately accused of the woman’s death because their efforts to adopt the child didn’t go as they had planned. In an effort to prove their innocence, they send a video to an attorney to give to police but it changes nothing.
Thirteen years later they are living in a small town in Colorado. Using aliases they have become part of the community and actually feel safe. Then Cole makes a mistake that makes their whereabouts known. It is time to run again. Before they can get out of town there is another murder and Cole is wrongly blamed for the death. Moving quickly they start a journey to find another safe place but unlike the last time, they have a confused teenager with a lot of questions.
It is not just the FBI agent who has been on this case since it started trying to close his case. There is someone else after them with orders to kill.
Can this family reach safety? Will the truth finally be revealed? Or will Cole, Lisa, and their “daughter” become the killer’s next victims?
I found Chad Zunker a couple of years ago when I was looking for a “Z” author for a reading challenge and now I anxiously await each new book he writes.
In Not Our Daughter we meet Cole and Lisa Shipley. They are good people doing a good thing in fostering a baby, Jade, with hopes of adopting her. We also meet FBI Agent Mark Burns who has been trying to bring the Shipleys in from the start. He is also dealing with a moody teenage daughter after divorcing her mother. The author has created characters with so much depth that you can root for them immediately. I enjoy the way they evolved through the story with Agent Burns questioning himself about his theory. Cole and Lisa realizing they should have told Jade more or as much as her age could handle. Her willingness to be involved in the quest to save them shows she was brought up right and mature for her age after she finally knew the truth. The family’s love was palpable and Cole and Lisa would go above and beyond to keep Jade safe.
This story is full of action that unfolds at breakneck speed. Cole and Lisa had a plan but the FBI was close and fast so adjustments had to be made. Before they could even get out of town bullets were flying and roads were being blocked. The chase was on and some heartwarming family moments were interweaved with the edge-of-your-seat suspense. Again plans needed to change and soon they were changing on the fly as the danger increased. The short cliffhanging chapters make the book extremely hard to put down. With the author’s detailed descriptions, I could easily envision every scene. This book would make a great movie.
Coming in at just under 250 pages I thought the ending was a little rushed but I was very happy that the reason this case popped up on everyone’s radar was addressed. It is left to our imagination whether there was follow-through and how the “long legal battle” played out.
Not Our Daughter was a terrific game of cat and mouse that I escaped right into. With genuine true-to-life characters, readers are taken on an intense and terrifying journey. Chad Zunker doesn’t disappoint.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.
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About the Author

Chad Zunker is the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Wife You Know, All He Has Left, and Family Money, as well as the David Adams series, including An Equal Justice, which was nominated for the 2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction; An Unequal Defense; and Runaway Justice. Chad also penned The Tracker, Shadow Shepherd, and Hunt the Lion in the Sam Callahan series. He studied journalism at the University of Texas, where he was also on the football team. Chad has worked for some of the country’s most powerful law firms and has also invented baby products that are sold all over the world. He lives in Austin with his wife, Katie, and their three daughters and is hard at work on his next novel. For more information, visit www.chadzunker.com.
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