Rating: 4 out of 5.

This is a really good contemporary mystery/thriller set in a small town in Pennsylvania. Det. Josie Quinn and her husband Noah are driving home on a winding mountain road. As they are about to pull over on the shoulder due to dense fog, a young girl dashes across the road in front of them and into the woods. The duo get out of the car to investigate and find another car pulled over. As they approach, they see a man standing over another young girl strangling her. Josie gives chase but he gets away. The young girl in the car, Dina, is dead, but Josie and Noah have hope that the other girl, Alison, is alive.

As the town begins a frantic search for Alison, Josie finds out she may have been romantically linked to her supervisor at work. When they go to his home to confront him, he’s found dead with a bullet hole in the head. His house is ransacked, just like Dina’s car and purse. Clearly a killer is frantically searching for something and Josie wonders how many innocent lives will be lost before the killer is caught.

This is book 15 in the series and I haven’t read any of the previous books. There was enough exposition in the book to fill me in on past details so I didn’t feel like I missed too much from not having read the other books. I liked Josie’s character. She’s smart and tough, but still has compassion for others. Her detective husband Noah was supportive and was more of a supporting character in this book than a main character. The book flowed smoothly and the story continued to move forward without slowing down. I appreciated this because there is nothing worse than being in the middle of an engaging mystery and then a bunch of irrelevant fluff is added as filler and the mystery basically stops. Some of the aspects of the mystery was a bit far-fetched, but it wasn’t a problem to suspend belief a bit because that’s what escapism is for. The mystery wrapped up nicely and the ending was satisfying.

I probably won’t go back and read the other books in the series, but I will definitely read more books moving forward. I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Bookouture. All opinions are my own.