The disappearance of a teenage girl will throw the Duluth police force into a frenzy. This is the second disappearance in two years and Police Lt. Jonathan Stride can't stand for another unsolved case so he will do everything to figure out what happened to Rachel Deese.
As Stride investigates he uncovers ugly truths. Rachel was beautiful and desired by many but she wasn't very likeable. She played with people's emotions and had a difficult relationship with her mother and step-father. The more Stride looks into her disappearance the more all signs point to foul play.
The novel, which started off as a police procedural, becomes a tense courtroom drama with the apparent resolution to the case. Three years later and much has changed in Stride's life with a new marriage, which is crumbling, and now there is a revelation of new clues to Rachel's disappearance.
The action moves to Las Vegas and perhaps that's the worst that could have happened in this novel. The characters introduced in this section were quite one-dimensional and this whole sequence just seemed to be introduced to complicate the story line.
This Edgar Nominated novel is one I really wanted to like, but I could never warm up to Lt. Stride or any of the other characters for that matter. I do have to say though that ending was something I didn't see coming at all.
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Added 03/07