I have unexpectedly fallen in love with this series of books. I knew full well that when I have finished reading them I shall be buying them in paperback. I find there is something special to the characters and the stories that keeps drawing me in. This was impossible to put down and I loved it!

Synopsis (as taken from the Amazon Kindle Store) is as follows:

The high chair lay on its side, a toy elephant and a crumpled green blanket scattered across the floor beside it.

“She had a baby? Is it—?”

“The baby’s gone.”

When Detective Josie Quinn is called to a large house on the outskirts of the small town of Denton, she’s horrified by the viciousness of the attack – smashed glass, splintered furniture and blood splattered across the floor. The owner, a single mother, is fighting for her life, and her newborn baby is missing.

A beautiful young woman caught fleeing the scene is Josie’s only lead, but when questioned it seems this mysterious girl doesn’t know who she is, where she’s from or why she’s so terrified…

Is she a witness, a suspect, or the next victim?

As Josie digs deeper, a letter found hidden in the house convinces her the attack, the missing child, and the nameless woman are linked to a spate of killings across the country, and Josie is faced with a heart-breaking decision…

Should she risk the life of one child to save many others? Or can she find another way to stop this killer before any more innocent lives are taken?

Ability to read – I basically read this off the back of the first book because I was so into what I was reading that I didn’t want to take a break from it. I was eager to see how Josie and Denton PD coped after the scandal of the first book. As everything was fresh in my mind, I didn’t have any difficulty in understanding what I was reading and actually managed to read at a faster pace because I understood the characters, their actions and the scenes they interacted in.

Characterisation – The characters in this series are so rich and detailed and I have a feeling that as I grow to learn more about them, the secondary characters will become more attached and detailed as well. I really enjoy the element of learning about Josie’s past as she works the current case. The fact that Regan didn’t shy away from showing all aspects of Josie, makes me love her more because Josie’s character appears real and well defined. I don’t ever feel like her actions are far-fetched or improbable. I understand her character and understand that she acts in a certain way. The fact that she acts her way regardless and doesn’t care who disagrees or takes issue with her personality and actions just made me warm to her even faster. She’s a very likeable character. I haven’t felt this strongly to a character within a detective/crime series since Ruth Galloway from Elly’ Griffiths series, it is important to me to discover another powerful female lead whose life isn’t a bed of roses.

Visualisation – As I said above, I read this straight after the first, so all the scenes were still fresh in my mind. I have more creative licence and room for my imagination to take hold because I’ve never been to Denton and have no prior knowledge of what it looks like. I feel confident in what I am picturing lines up with what I’m reading. I can clearly visualise everything like a running film within my mind as I read. I can see the characters as if they were standing right in front of me and I’m enjoying the level of connectivity I’m having with the characters and the book on a whole.

Uniqueness – It’s rare for me to not guess the ending of a detective/crime/mystery long before it end. When I find a book that is able to not only hold my attention but keep me out of the loop and stuck in theories until the final reveal, I get super excited because it doesn’t happen often! I guess you could say that something clicked in me when I read ‘The Vanishing Girls’ and this second book was as brilliant as the first and made me thankful that I stumbled upon Lisa Regan. This book and by extension the series, is something I know I can put on my shelf and read many times over. I’m smugly smiling at the end of this book and eager to start reading the next, I still have butterflies of excitement over the series of books and can’t wait to see what is in store for Josie next.

Star Rating – ★★★★★