Watch Her Disappear by Lisa Regan

 "In all the years she had been on the Denton police force, Josie had never encountered a dead body on prom night."

 

The plot:  Gemma Farmer, a fifteen-year-old girl who went missing in January is found dead on her sixteenth birthday wearing a brand new prom dress. The way she was killed is eerily similar to another missing girl's murder two decades ago. That girl, who was also found on her sixteenth birthday, was Chief Bob Chitwood's younger sister. How are the two girls connected? Who helped lure them away from their homes in the middle of the night? And can Detective Josie Quinn and the other members of Denton's small police force find the murderer before he kills another teenage girl?

My thoughts:  This is the fourteenth book in one of my favorite mystery series. Lisa Regan writes a taut crime thriller. I've come to really like Josie Quinn, Noah Fraley, and her other characters. And the mysteries themselves are sometimes dark, always puzzling and often unexpected. Normally I recommend starting with the first book in this series, Vanishing Girls, but I think you could easily jump into this series with this book because the mystery is not tied to Josie's personal history and past like so many of the other books in this series are. Watch Her Disappear is well-written, fast-paced, suspenseful and compelling. Another solid 4-star read. 

Happy Reading!

Play Dead by Angela Marsons

 "Kim knew she would do what she always did. Throw herself into the next case that landed on her desk."

 

This well-written British crime thriller takes place in the Black Country in the West Midlands of England at the Westerley body farm. D.I. Kim Stone is called to the site when the fresh body of a young woman is discovered. Then a second body is found, and Kim suspects they have a serial killer on their hands.

This is the fourth book in Marsons' D.I. Kim Stone series. And while I haven't read any of the previous novels, I was able to jump into this one without feeling lost. It was clear there were details about Kim Stone's life that I didn't know, but that only made me want to go back and read the previous books in this series. Because despite Kim's brusqueness and lack of ability to play nice with others, I liked her. Her job is pretty much her life, though she does have a cute dog named Barney; and with every case her focus is on getting justice. She's not a warm and fuzzy person, but she's a good detective. And the mystery she's trying to solve in this one is interesting and unexpected. I guess I have another series to add to my TBR list, because I'd like to see what happens next in Kim's life. But first I want to check out the three previous novels which all sound as good as this one.

Happy Reading!