My Child is Missing
Lisa Regan
365 pages
Bookouture
published September 8, 2023
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About the book
The little girl’s bright blue eyes are wide with fear, her hair tousled, her tears making tracks in the dirt smudged across her cheek. Curled tight in a tiny ball, it’s as if she wants to hide away forever. “He took her!” she cries. “He took my sister!”
When a desperate mother calls Denton police department to report her children missing, Detective Josie Quinn races to investigate. Sixteen-year-old Kayleigh and her little sister Savannah went for a walk in the woods but never came home. They are good girls and know not to go far, say their frantic parents. Kayleigh always looks after Savannah and brings her home safely. Until now…
Even as she vows to bring the sisters home safely, Josie’s blood runs cold: because they are not the only missing children. Rumors are spreading about the legend of “The Woodsman”: when pairs of children go into the woods, The Woodsman takes one of them and only one comes out alive. With local teenagers daring each other to walk into the woods at night in pairs, Josie knows that nobody is safe from the hysteria sweeping Denton. Little Savannah Patchett is soon mercifully found alive, alone and terrified, but she tells Josie “The Woodsman has taken my sister”.
All Josie’s leads seem to reach dead ends: her team traces Kayleigh’s scent to a dank, dark cabin in the woods, but the owner has an alibi and there is no evidence that Kayleigh has been inside. When Josie persuades Kayleigh’s classmates to talk, she learns that Kayleigh herself had a secret boyfriend whose identity is a mystery. Josie is desperate to track him down and to work out if he could hold the key to solving the case.
Then Josie’s worst fears come true: another pair goes missing and one of them is found dead soon after. Another teenage girl, lying straight and still, a halo of blood surrounding her beautiful blonde hair.
Josie knows that the legend of The Woodsman is nothing more than a story, but the truth is far more horrifying… With Kayleigh still out there somewhere and the TV news filled with stories of a serial killer at large, how far will Josie have to go to find the killer before more innocent lives are lost?
My Review
This is one of my all time favorite detective series. Reading this 18th book of the series, I’ve gotten to know Josie and her team really well. The amount of character development that occurs is deep. And it isn’t just the characters, but the cast of characters, mainly Josie’s team, that also grow and develop. And Lisa Regan doesn’t shy away from hard plot decisions, which was last evidenced in book 17. To remain spoiler free, I won’t get into specifics, but reading as the team handles and process everything brought a tear to my eye. Fictional characters’ trauma in a detective book getting me emotional. That should tell you all you need to know about the character development.
But I am supposed to convince you why you need to read this latest installment. As this one opens at a child’s baseball game right before I child goes missing (hence the name), I was quite concerned about the only child in this series. The last book introduced this mysterious Woodsman that nabs kids in the woods and that is explored in this book. So what happens when folklore becomes reality? Josie and her team start searching for the missing child.
Their investigation is layered and frustrating as they can’t catch a good break and the time is ticking. As with all the previous installments, I like the work life balance in the story. I love watching how the team works off of each other to showcase strengths to balance what another is lacking. And in this one I never saw that ending coming. I really didn’t work hard to solve this one, but enjoyed the ride, but at no point did I have an inkling where this would lead. That is unusual for me.
While you can read this one and the case itself works as a stand alone and the author is very good at briefly filling in any details for those that either don’t remember or haven’t read a previous book, this series is terrific and the personal lives and back story add so much to it, that I highly recommend you read this entire series in order, so you can enjoy this one and be ready for book 19. So many series get a little flat as they grow, but this one has me just as excited for the next book as I was at book 2.
About the author
Lisa Regan is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series. Lisa is a member of Sisters In Crime, International Thriller Writers, and Mystery Writers of America. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University. She lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the U.S. with her husband, daughter, and Boston Terrier named Mr. Phillip. Find out more at her website: www.lisaregan.com
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