About the book:
Through swirling dawn fog, they follow the trail of discarded items at their feet: a tube of glittery lip gloss; a cell phone; a cracked make-up compact, broken chunks of ivory powder spilling into the grass. Then the mist parts—just for a second—to reveal a beautiful young girl on the ground, her pale lips frozen forever in a silent scream…
On a winding mountain road into the small town of Denton, Pennsylvania, Detective Josie Quinn finds the body of a local teenage girl, Dina Hale. The sight of plum-colored bruises gathering around the girl’s neck pierces Josie’s heart, but the discovery of a second girl’s empty purse in the dirt nearby gives her a flicker of hope that one person, at least, made a lucky escape.
Dina’s parents are grief-stricken as the town rallies together in a desperate search for the second girl, Alison Mills, who waitressed with Dina at a local hotel. The two best friends were on their way to a shift when they were attacked. Josie was too late to save Dina, but she won’t rest until Alison is home safe.
Hitting a dead-end with interviews, Josie thinks she’s on to something when a photo surfaces suggesting Alison was romantically involved with one of the hotel staff. But when Josie arrives at the man’s house to find a bullet in his head, and the house ransacked, the case comes crashing down.
Evidence of frantic searching at both crime scenes has Josie convinced a twisted killer is on a hunt for something very personal and precious. And that they won’t stop until they find it. But how many innocent lives will be destroyed before Josie can uncover the missing piece at the heart of this deadly puzzle? And what sacrifices will she have to make to find Alison alive?
An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller from an Amazon, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni, and Rachel Caine. WARNING: will keep you up all night flipping pages until dawn!
My review:
Again. Lisa Regan has done it again with another slam-dunk winner of a book that I could barely tear myself away from. (For my other reviews of books in the Detective Josie Quinn series, go here, here, here, here, and here.) Seriously. I had to keep sneaking peeks on the Kindle app on my phone when I couldn’t quite finish the book on my lunch hour. I was at 87% and I could.not.wait until I got home to see what happened!
Josie and Noah are coming back from their long delayed and much deserved honeymoon, driving home on a very foggy road, when someone dashes in front of their car. They stop to try to help and come upon a man choking a teenage girl, demanding to know where “it” is. As Noah tries to save the girl, Josie pursues the man. But he evades her when he jumps off a precipice and disappears, not caring if he lives and seemingly hoping he dies. As they investigate the scene, they realize Dina Hale is dead. Her friend and passenger, Alison Mills, was able to flee and was presumably the person who ran in front of their car. With the killer possibly still on the loose, finding Alison becomes of utmost importance.
The more Josie and Noah and the team dug into the case, the more questions they face. Who is the killer? What is his connection to the two girls? What had the girls stumbled onto, that someone (the killer? Someone else?) would go to such lengths to get it back?
Y’all. The tension in this book is unbelievable. The misdirections, the shifting of gears, the pulling away of things I thought I had figured out. Lisa Regan is a master of the thriller/police procedural, I tell you. I’m not sure anyone does it better. The killer is identified pretty early in the story, but that’s just the tip of the suspenseful iceberg. One character’s backstory is told in flashbacks, and we don’t know who she really is until late-ish in the story. And we don’t know for most of the book who the real mastermind behind all of this is.
When the penny dropped? My jaw hit. the. floor. I did not see it coming, and what a reveal! I absolutely adore a book that can keep me in the dark until the end, and Regan has done that with every book of hers that I’ve read.
It made me happy that Josie and Noah finally got their honeymoon. They deserve to be happy together. Trout, Josie’s dog, is a delightful character. I love their interactions with him. And I really like how the team all works together. Nobody squibbles about not wanting a particular assignment. When Josie texts Chief Chitwood in the middle of the night, he tells her to go back to sleep after he responds. When she doesn’t, he’s up and out, helping her and Noah track down whatever lead she’s thought of in the wee hours. They’re supportive of each other and genuinely kind to each other, and that’s a treat to read, especially considering the difficulty inherent in their work.
If you want a rip-snortin’, hang-on-for-dear-life, screaming rollercoaster of a thrill in book form, you’ll want to make the acquaintance of Detective Josie Quinn. This one can be read alone, but do yourself a favor and start at the beginning of the series. Then binge ’em all.
Five stars. I’ll read whatever Lisa Regan writes without even looking at the blurb. She’s on my short list.
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy from Bookouture and NetGalley. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.
About the author:
Lisa Regan is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series. Lisa is a member of Sisters In Crime, International Thriller Writers, and Mystery Writers of America. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University. She lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the U.S. with her husband, daughter, and Boston Terrier named Mr. Phillip. Find out more at her website: www.lisaregan.com
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It sounds like another doozy! I just know that when I get my book on Sunday, I wouldn’t stop until it is finished! Then I plan to start over with book one! 😊
Sharon, I hope you love it! Lisa Regan’s books are always binge-worthy!