Book Review: The Drowning Girls by Lisa Regan

Tweet

Lisa Regan writes a series of detective/mystery novels called the Detective Josie Quinn series. This is book #13 in what is now a 20 book series, with no end in sight. ~~~~ A knock on the door late in the evening can only mean trouble for Detective Josie Quinn, but fear chokes her at the news that one of her own team is missing. No one has seen Denton PD's beautiful press liaison Amber for days. Sweet-natured and totally dedicated to the job, she'd never let her colleagues down. A message scrawled on the frosted windscreen of Amber's car leads Josie to a nearby dam. But the body they pull from the water is not Amber... Josie won't sleep until she finds a name for the innocent girl left to drown, and the meaning of the nummbers scribbled in a tattered pink diary found on Amber's desk. But when the trail leads her to a twisted truth about Amber's family, Josie wonders if anyone really knew her at all? As prime suspects start going missing, and rumors of an argument the night Amber disappeared surface, could one of her own staff be to blame? Finding Amber alive is Josie's only chance of knowing the truth and stopping a dangerous killer in their tracks. But as a blizzard closes in, how many more precious lives will be snatched before she can? ~~~~ To be honest, I found this story confusing. There were so many theories, some they thought were real. And then something else would happen and the theories would change. I love detective/mystery series and I enjoy this series of books. And Lisa Regan is an amazing puzzle maker. You just KNOW her wall is covered in post-it notes to keep track of the story lines. The books are very well written. When it came down to the end of this story, there were still questions leaving both Detective Josie Quinn and myself confused. And the more characters that came into the picture, the more confused I became. I literally had to go back and read part of a chapter over again. The thought in my mind was "person A killed person B, but who killed person A?" The answer was in one tiny sentence that I saw when I re-read a chapter. But then another chapter, another scary situation, and the truth is finally revealed. How in the world did the author keep these straight when I couldn't? I guess there is a different between mysteries and COMPLICATED mysteries and readers must love the COMPLICATED. I am not one of those people. But I love Lisa Regan's storytelling, her writing style, and her stories. I've only read 3 of her books in this series, with 4 more on my shelf. Consider that I am a middle aged woman who comes from reading simple mysteries like those written by the late Ed McBain. He was one of my favourites. And the late Sue Grafton as well. Mysteries have to become more complicated if they are going to grab the reader. I highly recommend this series of mysteries if that is your taste. Also, the chapters are short which makes it easy to put the book down and pick back up later... which may be why I lost track easily.