The Girl Who Lied and Their Angel’s Cry
Shannon Hollinger
302 and 334 pages
7 hours and 28 minutes and 8 hours and 33 minutes
Bookouture
published August 2, 2023
Buy Link(s):
The Girl Who Lied | Book 1 | Audible UK | Audible US
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Their Angel’s Cry | Book 2 | Audible UK | Audible US
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About the Books:
The Girl Who Lied
Rain hammers the earth and a vicious wind rattles the trees. Then lightning strikes, the flash illuminating a young girl staggering out of the woods, her brown eyes wide with fright, a silent scream on her lips…
There’s a storm approaching the tiny Maine town of Coyote Cove when Chief Maggie Riley comes across the body of a man, blood seeping from stab wounds into the damp forest floor. As she desperately struggles to secure the evidence before the rain hits, Heather, a local teenage girl, emerges from the woods, shivering and unable to talk.
Maggie, once a high flying big-city detective, lost everything when her four-year-old brother went missing five years ago. Heart-broken, she’s never stopped searching for him: but now she is plunged back into the world she left behind.
The victim, Maggie discovers, knew secrets about everyone in isolated Coyote Cove. It seems there are more local suspects in this case than people she can rule out. And with Heather still traumatised, Maggie struggles to unravel her strange appearance at the crime scene. Until, following a faint, bloody trail deep into the forest, she’s horrified to unearth what the terrified girl’s been hiding…
But when Heather is kidnapped, the battle to identify the killer becomes a race to save an innocent girl’s life. And with the whole town terrified, Maggie is shocked to uncover that this twisted killer is much closer to home than she’d ever imagined. Battling her own demons and memories of her missing brother, how far will Maggie have to go to save Heather? Or will another innocent young life be lost forever…?
A totally addictive crime thriller packed with suspense. If you love Lisa Regan, Louise Penny and Melinda Leigh, you’ll love The Girl Who Lied.
Their Angel’s Cry:
The little dog trembles and whimpers, but refuses to move. Maggie reaches further into the undergrowth, trying to tempt it out. But as she moves closer, she sees something that stops her heart—a tiny, shivering baby, wrapped in a thin, pink blanket, saved only by its loyal protector.
There’s a ferocious storm heading toward the isolated town of Coyote Cove when Chief Maggie Riley gets the call every cop dreads. Three bodies have been found on Rattlesnake Mountain, half a day’s hike from civilization. And when Maggie finally reaches the site, exhausted and freezing, she discovers something even more terrifying—a tiny baby girl, kept alive only by the warmth of a small dog who refuses to leave her side.
As Maggie races the baby to safety, she wonders, why on earth the family risked hiking the mountain in this weather? Who were they and who could possibly have killed them?
A former detective, Maggie may be an experienced investigator, but she’s still an unwelcome newcomer. Battling town prejudice, her fears for the orphaned baby, and the increasingly dangerous weather, Maggie soon discovers the case is far more complicated than she could have imagined. The family is not who they seemed. The mother has never had a baby, there’s no link between them at all. So whose baby is it, and where are they now?
With Coyote Cove cut off by the storm, Maggie knows that wherever the killer is, they won’t be able to leave. Stuck in town with a murderer on the loose, Maggie must race to find them before anyone else gets hurt. But she hasn’t counted on the killer taking matters into their own hands, and going after Maggie first…
An utterly compelling and addictive crime thriller, perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, D.K. Hood and Lisa Regan.
My Review
So having read books 1 and 2 of the Chief Maggie Riley series, the more I read of it, the more I like it. It took a little while for the characters to grow on me. I wasn’t sure I liked Maggie and Steve at the start of the series, but I am really a fan now. Both books had a storm threatening to tamper with things. In book 1, as Maggie is introduced, things are very personal and both Maggie and Steve have secrets that threaten to derail their life in Maine.
There are many POVs in the books, which is a switch for me in the usual detective novels I read. As I read, I wasn’t sure why the POVs outside of Maggie and Steve were important and only as the story progressed did it become clear why they were. Both stories are layered and kept me wanting more. They are fast paced, full of suspense and there were some twists along the way.
Book 3 comes out September 1 and I can’t wait to see where the series is heading.
I listened to book 1 and read book 2 and enjoyed both formats. Both kept me interested and were easy to follow.
If you want to jump in at the beginning of a new detective series, this one won’t disappoint.
Author Bio
With degrees in Crime Scene Technology & Physical Anthropology, Florida author Shannon Hollinger hasn’t just seen the dark side of humanity – she’s been elbow deep inside of it! She finds writing to be a much cleaner way to spend her time than the autopsy suite. Most days it smells better, too.
Her debut novel, the psychological thriller Best Friends Forever, is the first of a five-book deal with publisher Bookouture.
Her short fiction has appeared in Suspense Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and The Saturday Evening Post, among a number of other magazines and anthologies, and her story Lady Killer was a finalist for the 2021 Al Blanchard Award sponsored by the New England Crime Bake.
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