It’s not often I find a new series that interests me all the way around, characters, place, writing. All that changed when I read B R Spangler’s new book, Where Lost Girls Go. It features some of the best things you can find in a mystery series, including a police detective who is smart and driven; a lovely location, as it’s set on the Outer Banks; and personal relations that hint at past stories as well as future ways to grow. Add that to a delightfully complex plot and good pacing and you have a good book along with the expectation for more good ones to follow.
If, like me, you are still limiting your time going out and about, maybe you are looking for something good to read. I am certainly doing more travel via the written page these days, as I try find a balance between limiting my exposure to the Coronavirus and still engaging my brain enough to be more than a couch potato. If I’ve piqued your interest and you are also looking for some entertainment, read on to see what I said in my review of the book.
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Where Lost Girls Go is a rousing start to a brand new mystery series featuring Detective Casey White. For years, Casey has dedicated her life to missing persons cold cases, spurred on by the unsolved kidnapping of her own daughter. A near fatal mistake she makes, due to overwhelming stress, forces her to take a leave of absence, so she travels to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for some rest and rejuvenation. It’s not all a pleasure trip, though. When Casey travels, she always takes her file detailing her search for her missing daughter and she brings that with her on this trip along with a long buried lead that was so unlikely she hadn’t pursued it until it was the last possible lead.
As Casey drives into the Outer Banks area, she gets lost and comes across a young woman, naked and trying to escape the woods where Casey has gotten lost. Casey rushes her to the hospital, thinking the young woman was pregnant until her examination reveals she had recently given birth. Believing the discovery of the young woman may lead to a seriously deranged individual, Casey drives over to the beach just in time to see a recovery effort bringing the body of a young woman on shore from a burned out yacht. Casey gets pressed into service by the mayor as they are awaiting the arrival of a new detective and in dire need of someone to process the scene before the clues disappear with the tide.. Casey agrees to work the scene for the first day in order to gather information before it disappears and then plans to move forward with her own plans. As she is working the scene, the officers come across another young woman who has been shut in a closet and left for dead, complicating an already baffling case.
As more facts emerge, Casey becomes more and more entangled in both cases while the district attorney tries to link the two cases together; something Casey and her counterpart, former Sheriff and now member of the Marine Patrol, Jerico question. Both Casey and Jerico are driven, law enforcement officers, each with their own complicated back story. As they work the two cases, they draw closer together in a relationship that hopefully, will continue to grow and develop as the series continues.
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The entire book is a series of roller coaster rides that will have the reader rushing through parts to learn what happens next, only to slow down for a breath and then go again. The pacing for the book is excellent, pulling the reader through at a good speed, but not so fast as to leave you breathless. The ending twist was not a surprise for me, but may be for others. Regardless, it was very satisfying with the one exception of one poor decision Casey made which felt a little contrived to set up the situation. It was not enough of a misstep to do any measurable harm to the book itself. I look forward to the next book in this series and think most readers who like police procedurals and series books will do well to start with this first book. My thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced digital reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my latest review. If you are interested, the book is out for purchase now, through Amazon, BookBub, Barnes and Nobel, or your local independent bookseller. It’s also worth checking with your library and if they haven’t ordered it yet, suggest they give it a look. If the next book lives up to this first one, it’s a series they’re going to want to have on hand. Happy Reading.
