Local Girl Missing

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.

»“Live with it? That's it? That's your answer? What kind of adult are you, anyway?”«(A teenaged young woman to Josie; representative of what I believed about adults at that age...)For a police procedural in its 15th instalment, “[b:Local Girl Missing 61846012 Local Girl Missing (Detective Josie Quinn, #15) Lisa Regan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1659540842l/61846012.SY75.jpg 96442640]” by [a:Lisa Regan 6443334 Lisa Regan https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589563239p2/6443334.jpg] is simply outstanding - inventive and imaginative and really, truly suspenseful and thrilling. I will not resort to that horrible “unword” about being unable to put down a book but this is what happened to me here. I actually completely drained my Kindle's battery and swore when it ran out of juice - during the final chapter, of course!Let's not get too much ahead of us just yet: As mentioned, this is yet another instalment of a series of police procedurals featuring Detective Josie Quinn from the fictitious small town of Denton, Pennsylvania.Co-starring are Josie's team consisting of her now-husband Noah, Gretchen, Mettner, their chief and others in “supporting roles”. While long-term Josie fans like myself will recognise and enjoy every old “acquaintance”, every important character is properly introduced (without boring the true connoisseur!) so that this book can actually be enjoyed as a stand-alone thriller or serve as a worthy entry to the entire series.On their return trip from their Honeymoon, Josie and Noah get “stuck” on the road due to intense fog (YAY!). Without warning, a girl sprints away to disappear without a trace...When they emerge from the car, carefully investigating, Noah and Josie find a ransacked car and a murderer straddling his victim...This is the immediate beginning of the book and it's suitably ominous. What follows is a complex and complicated investigation into a string of murders, afore-mentioned disappearance, the corruption of an architect and... others!There's not much “literary meat” on these thrillers but Lisa Regan writes very well, always has an interesting story to tell and as long as you enjoy the genre and are willing to suspend your disbelief just a little (!) I can guarantee that you won't be disappointed if you're new to this series.If - like me - you're a Josie aficionado you'll feel right at home and won't have any issues - as so often, we're dropped right into the “action” and every single character works as well as pretty much always! Your knowledge of the earlier instalments will greatly add to your enjoyment since there are quite a few references which you'll rejoice in remembering (but if you don't understand them, you lose nothing).Short interludes from a specific perspective break up the sometimes extremely exciting chapters, which are of perfect length (approx. 10 minutes of reading), and allow for the deep breath that is due.Lisa Regan, it seems to me, is at the top of her game with this book. If she can keep churning out book after book in this quality my basic reading fodder is secure for years to come!Easy five stars out of five!Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam