SPOILERS: Pretty Girls Dancing by Kylie Brant

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”Audible
Disclaimer

Personally, I have always been a fan of spoilers! I am the type who starts with the last pages of a book first, reads the synopsis of a movie while I am watching it and constantly checks Reality Steve before and during any Bachelor franchise show. I like spoilers and find that 98% of the time they enhance my enjoyment and appreciation of the book/movie/tv show rather than hinder it. Based on my own extensive spoiler googling I believe there are other people out there who enjoy these spoilers as much as I do, so I am posting these full spoilers for them. At this time I have decided to only post spoilers for books that have been released for at least 6 months. I know there are many people who do not appreciate spoilers and do not want to hamper anyone's experience of reading a new release inadvertently. I will also only be focusing on books without any easily accessible spoiler summary available. If you would like to read my non-spoiler review of the book please click the link below and I hope you enjoy the spoilers!


Spoiler Synopsis

On the night of October 30th in Saxon Falls 14-year-old Whitney DeVries sneaks out to meet a boy from a few towns over, Patrick Allen, in person for the first time. When Whitney arrives at their arranged meeting place she does not find Patrick, instead she is greeted by a black van and an unknown figure who knocks her out. Upon awakening Whitney finds herself chained to a ballet bar on a basement stage where she is ordered to spend her days practicing ballet from a series of videos projected on the wall. Although once an elite ballerina she had quit the sport five months prior, a fact her captor seems to have known. Whitney's new world is filled by the strict rules and orders given to her by her unseen captor.

  1. Use of the bed is only permitted from 9pm to 7:15am.
  2. The shower may be used from 7:15am to 7:20am, between 7:20am and 7:30am you must get dressed and brush both teeth and hair, breakfast will be eaten between 7:30am and 7:55am before practice begins promptly at 8am.
  3. The toilet will be used at 7:15am and then every 4 hours exactly until bedtime.
  4. There will be no shouting, arguing or pouting.
  5. Absolutely no rudeness, name calling, profanity, or vulgarity of any sort is permitted.
  6. Anything but your full effort at practice is unacceptable.
  7. Never stop practicing before the film is over.
  8. Privileges will be earned for good behavior, punishments will be inflicted for bad.
  9. Most importantly, never try to escape.

After a couple days in captivity Whitney has already learned that she must endure a ruthless whipping if any rules are broken. While practicing through the pain of her injuries her captor informs her that her family has all died in a plane crash that lines up with the trip the DeVries family had been planning on taking to California. He backs up his claims by showing her news articles, television reports and memorial comments left by friends and family. Although she cannot believe her family would get on a plane to California with her missing, when faced with the evidence he produces she becomes despondent at the apparent fact of her families deaths.

Back in Saxon Falls 17-year-old Janie Willard is still dealing with the after effects of her sister Kelsey's disappearance seven years prior. The anxiety Janie had already been dealing with at 10 became crippling after her sister disappeared and still effects her day to day life immensely. Janie's appearance obsessed mother Claire relies heavily on both drugs and alcohol, her father David grows more and more distant with every increasingly frequent trip he takes to Columbus for work. The Willard family's issues are thrown in to stark relief when Whitney DeVries disappears. Both Whitney and Kelsey were taken at age 14, they share distinct physical similarities and were both high-level ballet dancers. With such a similar girl being taken Kelsey's disappearance is shoved in to the media spotlight all over again along with the name of her suspected abductor, the infamous serial killer known as the 'Ten-Mile Killer.' TMK has been at large for over 30 years and is known primarily for dressing and posing his victim's bodies as ballerinas before leaving them.

Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent Mark Foster has been placed on the frontline of the investigation into Whitney's disappearance. It is quickly confirmed that Whitney's internet beau Patrick Allen had his Facebook profile hacked and the number Whitney believed to be his was anonymous and now disconnected. Mark quickly discovers Whitney's family is having money issues due largely to her younger bother's expensive medical bills and a series of cash advances taken out by her father on their credit cards adding up to multiple thousands of dollars. These payments were the result of blackmail by a family member of a 12-year-old girl Mr. DeVries had been intimate when he was 15, but the lead is squashed due to the airtight alibis of the blackmailer and his family. While investigating the possibility of a connection to TMK Mark goes to visit former senior special agent Luther Sims, being "the closet thing to a profiler BCI had at the time" Sims created the victimology profile for the TMK and was the one who first suggested Kelsey Willard may have been one of TMK's victims. While discussing the possibility of Whitney being a TMK victim Sims questions Mark on the parents, emphasizing his belief that the most common thread between TMK's victims was being the child of "parents who are lacking in some way." The most tangible connection he can find between Kelsey and Whitney is a church attended by both Whitney's grandmother and Kelsey's mother, while neither girl was a regular parishioner they both had attended camp there on at least one occasion. Mark pays a visit to the church to meet the Reverend Mickleson and his wife, unusual behavior exhibited by the pair is immediately suspicious to Mark and causes him concern.

Nine days in to her captivity Whitney discovers a loose screw that had fallen to the floor of the shower. Using the screw Whitney pulls up a floor board from the stage in an attempt to create a weapon, although still grief-stricken by the presumed deaths of her family she was not ready to give in to her situation fully. While searching for a way to make a weapon Whitney discovers a multiple page long note left behind by a girl named Kelsey Willard who had also been taken by the same captor. Reading this note Whitney forms a bond with Kelsey as Kelsey's words restore her hope and confidence. In the note she reads that Kelsey was also told her entire family had died, the likelihood of both of their Whitney decides it is impossible that both their entire families died within days of capture. Kelsey also describes her strategy of becoming amenable to the captor and trying to get him to reveal as much as possible about himself, after reading this Whitney decides she would do the same.

As a result of a physical altercation with Heather, a tormentor at school, Janie winds up in an in-school suspension. While serving her time Janie becomes acquainted with tech-savvy classmate Cole. Cole shows Janie photos of a nearly naked Heather he found on a website filled with photos of other local girls. While investigating this website Janie and her best friend Olivia discover photos of Kelsey. These photos were not new to Janie, she had found them hidden in her room years earlier along with $1000 in cash. Janie had given both the cash and the photos to her mother at the time but Janie believed nothing ever came of it, her mother had in fact never given the photos to the police. Now suspicious of her mother Janie decides to investigate it herself and through Olivia she quickly confirms the photographer is the janitor at their high school Herb Newman. Olivia schedules an 'artistic' photoshoot for herself where Janie can accompany, Cole provides the pair with a recording device and they meet Newman at an empty lake house known around town as a popular party spot for teens. The girls are able to record Newman admitting to taking the photos of Kelsey before they are interrupted by the cops and arrested for trespassing. After handing over the recording of Newman both Janie and Olivia are released without charges.

Between Janie's recording and the drugs found both on Newman and in his car the police decide to conduct a full search of the lake house, quickly finding more hidden drugs. While in the basement the drug dog starts having an odd reaction to a certain wall, although not giving the sign indicating the presence of drugs the dog is so fixated that the searching officers go in to the wall where they find a body. Mark Foster arrives on the scene as forensics removes the body of Kelsey Willard dressed and posed as a ballerina. With Kelsey now a confirmed victim of TMK and a connected suspect with access to the lake house in custody the search for Whitney kicks in to high gear. Mark links Newman to both Kelsey and Whitney through the church where Newman has worked part time for years. Throwing the church in to even deeper suspicion is the fact that rather than getting paid for his work at the church Newman has instead been paying the Church $500 a month. Mark is now more sure of the churches involvement then ever and resolves to search the Reverend's long abandoned former church and interrogate both him and his wife again.

Grief overcomes the Willard family at the confirmation of Kelsey's death at the hands of TMK, for David that grief is matched only by fear. David has been having an affair for over seven years, Kelsey had discovered his affair shortly before she disappeared leading David to try and pay for her silence with the $1000 Janie later found with the pictures. The time he has been spending in Cleveland 'for work' has been spent meeting his mistress Tiffany who had previously been the real estate agent for the lake house. Although he had not returned for many years David met Tiffany at the lake house multiple times and knows his prints will be present at the scene. When confronted by the police about the prints he attempts to cover by saying he had toured the house a couple times because he had considered buying it many years ago.

Since finding the twin blessings of the screw Kelsey's note Whitney has spent her nights slowly attempting to loosen the screws on the ballet bar chaining her to the wall. Seventeen days into her captivity Whitney's task is finally accomplished when she is able to unscrew the bar from the wall and free herself. Whitney escapes by breaking the glass and climbing out the basements only small window, but before she can get out of view of her prison she is tackled by her captor. Whitney's captor beats her severely but she still manages to scar his face with the screw in the struggle, ultimately he overcomes her and returns her to the basement prison.

While on the way to question the pastor further Mark gets the call commanding him to arrest David Willard for his daughter's murder. In addition to his prints present on the scene forensics found a hair of his on Kelsey's body. With David in custody the other BCI agents feel confident they have finally subdued TMK but Mark is still conflicted because of the lingering bad feelings he has about the reverend and his wife. He decides to search the reverend's old church but finds nothing. While driving back to headquarters Mark realizes why he had felt uneasy looking at the photos of Betsey Graves, one of the suspected TMK victims who's body was never found. Mark realizes the reason he had such a sense of remembering when looking at her picture was because he had seen her before.

Mark had caught a brief glimpse of Luther Sims' wife during his prior visit, the woman's name was Elizabeth and was bedridden as a result of severe rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's. Luther had explained her condition as the reason for the for the locks on the cabinets and childproofing around his house. Mark has suddenly become sure that Elizabeth Sims is in fact Betsey Graves and Luther himself is TMK. Mark returns to the Sims home and after a brief, tense discussion where Mark denied that they found DNA on Kelsey's body Elizabeth breaks the scene by throwing items in the bedroom. Luther leaves the room to check on her then returns with a gun leading the two to exchange shots. Luther quickly admits to being TMK, telling Mark he planted the DNA evidence on Kelsey's body and that Whitney is already dead. Backup arrives and subdues Luther, allowing Mark to take Luther's keys and venture down to the basement where he finds Whitney badly injured but still alive. Both Betsey and Whitney are returned to their families, Whitney reaches out to the Willards telling them how she would not have survived if it wasn’t for Kelsey.


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