THE GIRL WITH NO NAME

5 stars out of 5

This series got off to a promising start with Vanishing Girls, the first to feature Josie Quinn, a very capable detective in Denton, Pa. So of course, I was eager to get my hands on a copy of this one (thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for an advance review copy). My opinion? This one is better than the first. That said, I'll add this: While this one stands on its own well, I think that starting with the first one will give you a bit more understanding of what's going on (and besides, it's also very good).

And for sure, there's a whole lot going on here with lots of players, so you need to pay close attention. Josie is now the chief of police in Denton - a job she likes, although she prefers action to sitting behind a desk keeping tabs on department budgets. She gets it in spades as she's called in when Missy, a stripper, lands in the hospital after taking a brutal beating at her home. She'd just delivered a baby, it appears - a baby who's now missing. Complicating the matter is that Missy and Raymond, Josie's late husband, were a hot item before he died; now, Josie must put aside her conflicting feelings and find out who attacked Missy and took the infant. 

And that's when the plot thickens even more. Josie's fiance Luke has been distant of late; when he goes missing, Josie learns that he knew Missy rather well. So, Josie and her team head for Luke's remote cabin, where he's been spending more time of late, and they find blood. No Luke, but there is a dead body half-buried behind the cabin - a man who's identified as a gangster type from Atlantic City. Has Luke gone off the deep end and committed murder, and if so, is it somehow connected to the baby's disappearance?

Needless to say, Josie desperately wants to find Luke, even if it means he's implicated in the goings-on. The investigation leads to a very nasty rich kid who's trying to build a casino in Denton and then to an even more wealthy man who's good friends with the Denton mayor, who threatens to relieve Josie of her job if she doesn't play well with said mayor's family and friends.

Josie isn't one to be intimidated, but with Luke involved and her upcoming marriage in jeopardy, she's conflicted. Her colleages try to help, with some success, but in the end it's Josie who must come to terms with the outcome. 

The Girl With No Name by Lisa Regan (Bookouture, April 2018); 341 pp.