WATCH HER DISAPPEAR

5 stars out of 5

This is the 14th installment in the series featuring Pennsylvania Detective Josie Quinn, and I've read several. All have been quite good, but for some reason this one stands out among the others. Maybe it's because the focus seems a little less on Josie's troubled background and more on that of her chief, Robert Chitwood - a man who, prior to this, has been a bit of a thorn in Josie's side. Or maybe it's because a serial killer is on the loose - perhaps one with ties to a long-ago murder that hits too close to home for comfort. Whatever the reason, it gets five stars from me.

That's even though I was left scratching my head over how a relatively small (20,000) town can support "several different" high schools and reels in "hundreds and hundreds" of students at a single prom (especially when the latter typically is limited to juniors and seniors). I live close to a handful of towns of this size - a few stones' throws from the Keystone state, in fact - where just two high schools struggle with low enrollment figures. Oh well, except that the unrealistic numbers helped complicate corpse identification, I suppose it really wasn't all that important to the overall scheme of things.

And the scheme is intriguing; out behind one of those several schools on systemwide prom night, a young girl's body is found. The victim of a single stab wound, she's wearing what appears to be a prom dress, complete with wrist corsage. Problem is, no one has a clue as to who she is. Finally, a lightbulb goes off in Josie's head; she's a girl who went missing a few months earlier for whom an Amber alert was issued. There are zero clues on the body that could lead to a suspect, but five small cuts on the inside of her arm raise alarm bells. When another missing girl is found in her bed a few days later - with a similar cause of death and a different number of small cuts - it's enough to make Jesse and her team, husband Lt. Noah Fraley and detectives Gretchen Palmer and Finn Mettner, lean toward the serial killer angle.

Strangely, their chief suddenly becomes animated and insistent that they pursue the case. When he finally reveals the reason, it opens up a whole new line of investigation into what will become a race to find a killer before another young girl falls victim. It's nonstop action and a slam-bang finish - good reasons for not wanting to turn off my Kindle at bedtime. Many thanks once again to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. Good job!

Watch Her Disappear by Lisa Regan (Bookouture, April 2022); 389 pp.