She Treads Softly: Seven Girls Gone

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Seven Girls Gone

Seven Girls Gone by Allison Brennan
4/25/23; 448 pages
MIRA Books
Quinn & Costa Thriller #4

Seven Girls Gone by Allison Brennan is a very highly recommended procedural and the fourth novel in the Quinn and Costa Series. This is an excellent series and I fully recommend fans of procedurals start it asap.

Seven young women have gone missing in the small bayou town of St. Augustine, Louisiana, over three years. Police detective Beau Hebert cares deeply, but it seems that corruption runs deep in the Parish police department. Beau calls in his friend former Navy SEAL Michael Harris who is part of the FBI Mobile Response Team. Michael arrives with LAPD officer Kara Quinn to Broussard Parish. Beau is concerned that witnesses are being silenced or intimidated and he needs help. Michael has the Mobile Response Unit, under the direction of Special Agent Mathias Costa (Matt),following him to Louisiana, along with analyst Ryder Kim, forensic specialist Jim Esteban, and white-collar crimes expert Zack Heller.

The intricate plot unfolds with many different aspect of the investigation being closely scrutinized. It is a detailed, layered, and complicated plot as the clues are uncovered and the group discovers connections and suspects beyond the small town. The pace was fast and then picks up momentum as the number of suspects builds. The writing is masterful and the case is unique.

Having followed the whole series, I am invested in these characters and find them fully realized, well-developed characters. The relationship between the team members flourishes and they are becoming a cohesive, dedicated unit with each of them performing an essential role in the case. The personal relationship between Costa and Quinn slowly continue. Kara Quin is a great character.

This is becoming a solid, reliably favorite series. The series includes The Third to Die, Tell No Lies, The Wrong Victim, and Seven Girls Gone. I think it would still be enjoyable as a stand alone procedural, but knowing the whole backstory does provide extra depth and context. Each case is wrapped up at the end of the novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of MIRA Books.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.