Vanishing Girls: A totally heart-stopping crime thriller

4.5★s

Vanishing Girls is the first book in the Detective Josie Quinn series by best-selling American author, Lisa Regan. Three weeks into her paid suspension from the Denton PD for the use of excessive force on a member of the public, Detective Josie Quinn is frustrated with her exclusion from the case hitting the news, the abduction of pretty teen, Isabelle Coleman. The Denton PD's searches aren't turning up any clues, and they could surely use some help, but her boss warns her off, and her soon-to-be ex, Sergeant Ray Quinn refuses to share information.

Days later, she has twice come across the name "Ramona": first, on the lips of Isabelle's history teacher, Dirk Spencer soon after he has been shot; then written in blood on a wall by a catatonic teen recently found after being missing for a year. Josie is convinced that it can't be coincidence, but none of the Denton PD personnel she tells seem to find it important.

The one silver lining to her suspension cloud is that she has plenty of time to chase up leads. She trawls the internet, discovering a similar case from six years previous, she chats to ex-girlfriends, and a certain persistent TV reporter, and she manages to persuade her new fiancé, State Trooper Luke Creighton to get her copies of files. At every step, with every piece of information she uncovers, she feels there's a cover-up going on: someone is being protected, and she starts to wonder just whom she can trust.

This is an action-packed thriller with a hefty body count and some clever detective work. Regan's protagonist is smart, persistent and gutsy, and more of Josie Quinn will be eagerly anticipated.