NO GOING BACK

4 stars out of 5

As a longtime and now mostly retired journalist, I can't say I relate well to Sawyer Brooks, an up-and-coming investigative reporter at the Sacramento Independent. Physically and mentally scarred from years of abuse - like her sisters Harper and Aria - she's lugging around baggage that tends to get in the way of her job (which, while I sympathize with what she's gone through, shouldn't be the case in the real world). But hey - this is fiction, so it is what it is.

This one, the third in the series, puts the sisters' mixed-up emotions to the test. Sawyer is working on a story about a female vigilante group dubbed the Black Wigs, whose mission is to avenge the men who abused them (unlike readers, with no idea how what she finds may impact her own life). Now there's a new murder in town which appears to be a similar conquest, but there are differences that make Sawyer suspect there's something else afoot. A copycat, perhaps?

The police don't believe Sawyer, nor do they want her help - which of course just makes her even more determined to get to the truth. She also runs afoul, at least in the beginning, of a co-worker who has years of experience and wants the Black Wigs story for herself. They end up, as my late mother would say, holding hands to keep from fighting - reluctantly joining forces to split the glory. Meantime, murders keep piling up as Sawyer tries to figure out where her relationship with a co-worker is going (if anywhere), her sister Harper seems to go off the rails despite having a loving husband, a couple of kids and another on the way and sister Aria, always a loner, surprises herself by letting go of some baggage that has kept her from forming meaningful relationships.

There's no shortage of action right up to the ending - I was always on the alert to see whose lights got knocked out next, how and by whom. The ending itself wasn't exactly satisfying to me (I'm not much of an "end justifies the means" kind of person). But in the context of this story, and the complexities of these characters, it probably was the only way to go. It also raised the possibility of a new direction for the series - I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with a pre-release copy to read and review.

No Going Back by T.R. Ragan (Thomas & Mercer, May 2021); 283 pp.