A married couple’s Caribbean vacation is actually a cover for a sex-trafficking sting in this thriller sequel.

Homebody Mariah Bennett is perfectly content with her Jersey Shore life. But her husband, Trey, formerly a Special Forces operative, is bored with his job at a building company. So she reluctantly agrees to his working undercover for Law and International Freedom Enterprise to take down child traffickers. They rent a home on Antillia, an island dense with forests and mountains, where some kids have disappeared. The investigation has a starting point—an American-owned resort that may be a front for sex slavery. While Mariah worries about Trey’s safety, she also frets over his increasing closeness to a sex worker named Camille. This woman hopefully has information that will uncover hard evidence, but is there anything more to her relationship with Trey? In the meantime, Mariah helps a local teacher with kids and picks up details on her own. Once she starts piecing together clues, she finds herself running into unsavory types who don’t take kindly to her nosiness. Miani’s story moves at a deliberate pace. Mariah, who narrates, grumbles over a grueling mountain hike and revels in Thanksgiving bringing her family together again. But tension slowly builds as the investigation takes over the narrative. Mariah, for example, witnesses a probable abduction and soon suspects several people of playing a part in the disappearances, including islanders she has befriended. The author paints beautiful scenery, from rolling, ominous storm clouds to the juxtaposed, multicolored roofs of a town’s many houses. Although the undercover gig unfolds largely in the background, Mariah’s family is endlessly engaging. Her newlywed daughter’s honeymoon was on Antillia, where Mariah’s new son-in-law also works for LIFE. They make up an intriguing cast that deserves another installment or two.

Vibrant characters and prose carry this enthralling crime tale.