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EVERY MISSING GIRL

Name: EVERY MISSING GIRL
Author: Leanne Kale Sparks
ISBN: 9781639102303

by Leanne Kale Sparks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2023

The characters’ amiability and competence make the final act sting, though seasoned readers may be expecting it.

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The investigation of a child trafficking case is put on the back burner when a detective’s niece goes missing in what he can only hope is a coincidence.

FBI Special Agent Kendall Beck and Denver Homicide Detective Adam Taylor cross paths once again after working the murder of Kendall’s best friend. This time, their two specializations (Adam: dead guys; Kendall: kids) dovetail when a shooting at a Colorado minimart leaves several bodies behind and a child vanishes into thin air. It doesn’t seem like there’s much to learn except that a good Samaritan believes the missing girl may have been the victim of trafficking. As he explains to Kendall, the previously not-dead guy at the minimart didn’t exactly look like the fatherly type. But the trafficking suspects close ranks before Kendall and Adam can get started, and the two are still trying to figure out what to do next when the unthinkable happens: Adam’s niece, Frankie, goes into the locker room after a hockey game and never comes out. The hours counting down at the beginning of each chapter indicate a limited amount of time for the investigating duo to find Frankie still alive, and that time dwindles as they keep hitting dead ends. Though the case is close to home, Adam’s brother, Mark, and sister-in-law, Poppy, have no information to share. But Poppy’s evasiveness puts Adam on edge, particularly when Mark reveals similar concerns about his wife. Surely Frankie’s absence couldn’t be related to the broader child trafficking Kendall and Adam are investigating—because, if it were, the danger could be worse than anyone imagines.

The characters’ amiability and competence make the final act sting, though seasoned readers may be expecting it.

Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023

ISBN: 9781639102303

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Crooked Lane

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

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YOU'D LOOK BETTER AS A GHOST

by Joanna Wallace ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2024

Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.

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Dexter meets Killing Eve in Wallace’s dark comic thriller debut.

While accepting condolences following her father’s funeral, 30-something narrator Claire receives an email saying that one of her paintings is a finalist for a prize. But her joy is short-circuited the next morning when she learns in a second apologetic note that the initial email had been sent to the wrong Claire. The sender, Lucas Kane, is “terribly, terribly sorry” for his mistake. Claire, torn between her anger and suicidal thoughts, has doubts about his sincerity and stalks him to a London pub, where his fate is sealed: “I stare at Lucas Kane in real life, and within moments I know. He doesn’t look sorry.” She dispatches and buries Lucas in her back garden, but this crime does not go unnoticed. Proud of her meticulous standards as a serial killer, Claire wonders if her grief for her father is making her reckless as she seeks to identify the blackmailer among the members of her weekly bereavement support group. The female serial killer as antihero is a growing subgenre (see Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018), and Wallace’s sociopathic protagonist is a mordantly amusing addition; the tool she uses to interact with ordinary people while hiding her homicidal nature is especially sardonic: “Whenever I’m unsure of how I’m expected to respond, I use a cliché. Even if I’m not sure what it means, even if I use it incorrectly, no one ever seems to mind.” The well-written storyline tackles some tough subjects—dementia, elder abuse, and parental cruelty—but the convoluted plot starts to drag at the halfway point. Given the lack of empathy in Claire’s narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt.

Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.

Pub Date: April 16, 2024

ISBN: 9780143136170

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Penguin

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

Categories:

GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER | THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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DAUGHTER OF MINE

by Megan Miranda ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 9, 2024

Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.

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The loss of her police officer father and the discovery of an abandoned car in a local lake raise chilling questions regarding a young woman’s family history.

When Hazel Sharp returns to her hometown of Mirror Lake, North Carolina, for her father’s memorial, she and the other townspeople are confronted by a challenging double whammy: As they’re grieving the loss of beloved longtime police officer Detective Perry Holt, a disturbing sight appears in the lake, whose waterline is receding because of an ongoing drought—an old, unidentifiable car, which has likely been lurking there for years. Hazel temporarily leaves her Charlotte-based building-renovation business in the capable hands of her partners and reconnects with her brothers, Caden and Gage; her Uncle Roy; her old fling and neighbor, Nico; and her schoolfriend, Jamie, now a mother and married to Caden. Tiny, relentless suspicions rise to the metaphorical surface along with that waterlogged vehicle: There have been a slew of minor break-ins; two people go missing; and then, a second abandoned car is discovered. The novel digs deeper into Hazel’s family history—her father was a widow when he married Hazel’s mother, who later left the family, absconding with money and jewels—and Miranda, a consummate professional when it comes to exposing the small community tensions that naturally arise when people live in close proximity for generations, exposes revelation after twisty revelation: “Everything mattered disproportionately in a small town. Your success, but also your failure. Everyone knows might as well have been our town motto.”

Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.