Review: Last Girl Gone by J.G. Hetherton

Title: Last Girl Gone by J.G. Hetherton
Laura Chambers Mystery Series Book One
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 309 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

This pulse-pounding series debut is the next obsession for fans of Julia Keller and David Bell, and readers of unflinching thrillers.

Sometimes, the journey home is the most harrowing. And it’s every parent’s worst nightmare.

Investigative journalist Laura Chambers is back in her tiny hometown of Hillsborough, North Carolina, the one place she swore never to return. Fired from the Boston Globe, her career in shambles, she reluctantly takes a job with the local paper. The work is simple, unimportant, and worst of all, boring—at least until a missing girl turns up dead, the body impeccably clean, dressed to be the picture of innocence.

Years earlier, ten-year-old Patty Finch left home and never made it back. But for the people of Hillsborough, Patty was just the beginning. Child after child disappeared, a reign of terror the town desperately wants to forget. Now that terror has returned to seize another girl. And another. And another.

This is the story Laura’s been waiting for—her one last chance to get back onto the front page. She dives deeper into a case that runs colder by the second, only to discover the truth may be far closer to home than she could have ever imagined. Powerful, intricate, and tense, Last Girl Gone will have you looking over your shoulder long after the last page.

Review:

Last Girl Gone , the first installment in J.G. Hetherton’s Laura Chambers Mystery series, is a twist-filled, suspenseful mystery.

After losing her job at the Boston Globe, Laura Chambers reluctantly returns to her small hometown in Hillsborough, NC. Now working for the Hillsborough Gazette, her latest story about the horrifying kidnapping and murder of a ten year old girl is front page news. Fighting to keep the story, Laura connects former Sheriff Don Rodgers and FBI Agent Tim Timinski in order to find out more information that might help locate the other ten year old girl who still missing. The similarities between the current cases are eerily similar to crimes that Rodgers worked on during the 1980s. Could the same killer be responsible for the kidnapping/murders in both the past and present?

Laura’s fall from grace puts her right back in the life she fought so hard to leave behind after graduating from high school.  Now nearly thirty, she is living with her verbally abusive and spiteful mother, Diane, and she is struggling to resurrect her career. Laura is stubborn and tenacious as she investigates both the current and previous cases while also competing with her ambitious and aggressive colleague Colin Smythe. Her interest in the fate of the still missing girl goes deeper than the story she is chasing since she genuinely cares about the ten year old girl’s fate.  Laura does not hesitate to put herself in harm’s way in her effort to save the girl but will she escape from the twisted killer unscathed?

Laura has good instincts and she refuses to give up her quest for the truth. Despite pleas from her therapist/friend Jasmine DeVane, Don and the local police, she refuses to stop searching for answers. Bothered by inconsistencies and quite certain things are not as they appear, Laura stumbles onto shocking new evidence that puts her in the crosshairs of a clever but very troubled murderer.

Last Girl Gone is a spine-tingling mystery that is fast-paced and impossible to put down. Laura is a very intelligent, compassionate and intrepid woman whose efforts to salvage her career take a backseat to saving a kidnapped girl’s life.  Don and Tim are wonderful secondary characters who are never dismissive of Laura’s concerns or instincts as they go the extra mile to assist her. Laura’s investigation  unearths several startling leads but the perpetrator’s identity remains tantalizingly out of reach. With several shocking twists and unexpected turns, J.G. Hetherton brings this spellbinding mystery to a jaw-dropping conclusion. The Laura Chambers Mystery series is off to a strong beginning that will leave fans of the genre eagerly awaiting the next installment.