Off already on my first unplanned reading path. Sooner or later it always happens. My reading is off to a very slow start this year, but all things considered, I am not surprised. And I am not sure which reading list or newsletter that prompted me to pick up Luisa Luna's Two Girls Down, but the review or recommendation was so persuasive that I was immediately sold. And to be honest I am very much in a mystery/suspense/thriller mood, too. So it came in the mail and I started reading and was hooked.
And then came an offer for a review copy for her forthcoming novel, The Janes, featuring the same main characters, so I had to say yes, of course. You know how all the planets will line up just right as a sign this is the book/author you need to read now? For a while now I have been a little jaded when it comes to thrillers as they seem far too much in the same vein. Or maybe I just needed a break and palate cleanser period, but I have to agree with the blurbs on the book--Nancy Pearl and Lee Child both gave the book thumbs up--"sensational", "spectacular" and "gripping" just to name a few words of praise the book has earned.
And then today in CrimeReads there was this list! Hear hear--I am totally on board with that--in praise of difficult women! The list is by Louisa Luna and now I want to pick up some of the books she recommends! Onwards, I think. But first maybe I should mention why Two Girls Down is resonating with me at the moment. Maybe resonating is not exactly the right description, but I am finding myself engaged with the storytelling and the characters.
The mystery at the heart of the novel is the disappearance of two young girls from the parking lot of a Kmart in a small Pennsylvania town. Their mother ran in just for a few minutes to pick up a birthday gift, but when she returned to the car they were missing. There is the sense that maybe the mother has some issues. No husband/father in the picture. Maybe not the very best family situation, but they are utterly devastated. With little progress forthcoming from the local police the family hires a bounty hunter from California to help find the girls. And this is where it really gets interesting.
Alice Vega. I am still forming my impression of her. She is called "Vega" in the story, which is sort of telling. She is no-nonsense and fairly unemotional. She can take care of herself it goes without saying. I think to say she has moxie is even too tame to really. Vega is a no-holds-barred sort of woman. She is independent and confident and I would feel pretty safe in her company. When she arrives, she knows she is going to need a little local help and she convinces Max Caplan, a disgraced former policeman, to help her obtain the witnesses interviews and aid her in her investigation. I like Max--I like his teenage daughter Nell. And I am very curious how they will all work together--especially as there is now a second book in the series and this disparate set of investigators live on opposite coasts!
So, a little teaser and peek into Alice Vega's character.
"In a room in a house in Central California, a girl stood on her hands. She was too old to be called a girl anymore, thirty-three, but she still felt like one. Not in a good way of having her whole life in front of her. In the bad way of being able to see only the edges of things, to peek around the corners when what you wanted was a city planner's blueprints of the whole block seen from above."
Vega is 33 and Cap is 41 with a teenage daughter and an ex-wife. I am very curious about the characters and how they will interact and want to know more about their personalities and back stories. All in all a good start to a new series with a few very fresh and interesting characters.