Vanishing Girls

I've had Vanishing Girls on my kindle for awhile and in my regularly scheduled New Years attempt to read my TBR, I finally cracked it open. I was in the mood for a suspense read and Regan hits the ground running in this dark, gritty police procedural with a strong but flawed main character in small-town Detective Josie Quinn. 

Josie is a memorable character and though she's not always likeable and has more than her fair share of flaws, I found her quite compelling. Readers will get to understand her better as Regan reveals the reasons for Josie's emotional baggage with her failed marriage, and work and family issues that impede her professional and personal success. 

The story is told from Josie's POV but also includes POVs of some of the missing girls. At first, these felt a bit confusing and the POV changes weren't clearly labelled (possibly due to the kindle format), but I got used to these changes in POV and the additional perspectives added to the eerie feel. 

The story was a lot darker and gruesome than I was anticipating, but this book was expertly paced with short chapters and strong secondary characters (I loved Grandma and Noah Farley). There were tense moments, a death that made me gasp and some red herrings, making Vanishing Girls become a story I struggled to put down. 

This was a very strong start to a new-to-me gritty police procedural/suspense series, I look forward to reading more books from this series. This series is a good pick for fans of Melinda Leigh's Bree Taggert series.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Lisa Regan

Genre: Suspense

Series: #1 in the Detective Josie Quinn series

Type and Source: eBook, personal copy

Publisher: Bookouture

First Published: January 17, 2018

Book Description from GoodReads: She was close enough to see that the girl had written a word on the wall in bright, warm red blood. Not a word, actually. A name…

Everyone in the small American town of Denton is searching for Isabelle Coleman, a missing seventeen-year-old girl. All they’ve found so far is her phone and another girl they didn’t even know was missing.

Mute and completely unresponsive to the world around her, it’s clear this mysterious girl has been damaged beyond repair. All Detective Josie Quinn can get from her is a name: Ramona.

Currently suspended from the force for misconduct, Josie takes matters into her own hands as the name leads her to evidence linking the two girls. She knows the race is on to find Isabelle alive, and she fears there may be others…

The trail leads Josie to another victim, a girl who escaped but whose case was labelled a hoax by authorities. To catch this monster, Josie must confront her own nightmares and follow her instinct to the darkest of places. But can she make it out alive?

Fans of Angela Marsons, Helen Fields and Robert Dugoni will be utterly gripped and sleeping with the lights on once they discover the first in this unputdownable new crime thriller series.