On the anniversary of her sister’s death, FBI agent Nikki Cassidy takes a call that makes her heart pound in her chest, the image of her beautiful sister Caitlin’s lifeless body wearing a crown of roses etched in her mind. Another girl has been taken.

Nikki rushes to missing thirteen-year-old Natalie’s home in the small town of Groveton, Ohio. The girl’s heartbroken family say she was loved by everyone, and the kind of daughter who would never lie. But when Nikki uncovers a hidden note in Natalie’s bedroom, marked with a red rose, it’s clear she was keeping dangerous secrets. And that Caitlin’s killer has taken another vulnerable young victim.

Days later, the body of another thirteen-year-old schoolgirl is found in a remote patch of woodland, a crown of roses delicately placed on top of her head. Just like Caitlin.

Terrified that Natalie will be next, Nikki retraces her last known steps, sure that whoever wrote the note in her bedroom was there when she vanished. She’ll risk everything—even her own life—to save Natalie and finally get revenge on her little sister’s killer. But can she track down this twisted monster before another innocent life is taken?

Kindle | 64 Chapters | 326 Pages | 2.5 Hrs over 2 Days

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This was an impulse kindle purchase. I have enough unread books but I just couldn’t stop myself from going on a little kindle haul. This book felt very similar to The Vanishing Girls by Lisa Regan, so while I was aware that the plot wasn’t wholly original, I was more in tune to what I was reading as I found the writing style similar to how Regan writes and – as you know – Regan is a favourite author of mine.

Aside from the blurb, this book is told in first person, which made for a nice change as I usually find crime thrillers are told in third person.

This book follow FBI Agent Nikki Cassidy, who upon returning to her hometown to visit a murderer in prison, discovers that the case of her sister’s disappearance and murder 15 years ago may not be as solved as she originally thought. When another local girl goes missing, Nikki throws herself into the case and connects several other cases to the web that involves her own sister, a small town community, and those that wander…lost.

Through Nikki we meet her fiancé Greg, her colleagues Alex and Girard. Her boss, Sheriff Earnshaw, and Police Officer Billy.

I hated Greg from the beginning. A red flag character if ever they was. It was obvious that the relationship between him and Nikki wasn’t one that was fated to last. That man moaned about his coming wedding than anything else and I just found his complaints to be a little slimy.

Alex is a fellow FBI Agent, married with children. She was a calming presence and a character that kept Nikki from floating away. She wasn’t as central as Nikki but she pulled her own weight in the plot.

Girard (whose name I’m pretty certain I’ve spelt wrong) was sort of sent to balance out the two women detectives. His character is close to retirement and I got the impression he would rather spend his entire day doing crosswords in the paper. He talks a lot about his upcoming retirement and what he plans to do however, he also has a lot of knowledge which he shares and he comes through in the end.

Nikki’s interactions with her boss were all done over the phone, so I didn’t really get to sus out his character in any particular way. However, I think the overall plot benefitted from having him as a character.

Earnshaw was a character I found hard to place. I couldn’t decide what hand he should stand on. Part of that indecision, I realise, is down to how the book is written and what the book led me to believe but his gruff personality did add depth to the crime mystery and I think without him it would have been too clean and lacking in some way.

Billy, who is on the police force – though I don’t think I ever noticed what his actual job title was – starts as being a socially awkward man with a winning smile who went to school with Nikki and had a crush on her. Aside from Nikki, his character grows the most and has the most ‘rollercoaster’ style development. There were moments when I felt sympathy for him and moment when I wanted to wring his neck. Aside from what Nikki was saying, I had suspicions, I had reservations. I hadn’t quite worked out where he stood in the book till it was almost over and I enjoyed that guessing game.

The reveal was a short, intense climax. Out of all my theories I was wrong on both the criminal party and the reasoning behind it. I prefer being wrong. I hate working it out too early. The reveal worked well because there was also an explanation behind the reasoning for it. I know not all crime books will show why the crimes were committed and leave it as an open ended ‘we will never know’ but with the varied but also specific nature of this plot, it was beneficial to the reader to be able to understand why this had happened, how targets were picked, and ultimately what started the killings in the first place.

I also enjoyed the way the author established certain characters as though they were to be important to the series on a whole before twisting the knife and revealing the real plot journey.

An unexpected delight. I have had a look at Dana Perry and seen she has written some other books along with two further books in the Nikki Cassidy series, so I will be checking those out. I’m very behind on my 2024 reading goal – so I’ll need to get a move on. Reading this did get me out of a bit of a slump and will hopefully encourage me to read some more.