She Treads Softly: The Girl from Nowhere

Thursday, November 20, 2025

The Girl from Nowhere

The Girl from Nowhere by Michele Dominguez Greene
12/9/25; 242 pages
Storm Publishing
Special Agent Emily Ray #3

The Girl from Nowhere by Michele Dominguez Greene is a recommended investigative mystery and the third book in the series featuring FBI Special Agent Emily Ray. Although this can be read as a standalone, readers would benefit from reading the books in order.

Special Agent Emily Ray is assigned to verify the identity of Kaveri Miller Browne, who went missing as a very young child and has been found eighteen years later by a former LAPD detective turned PI, Rawley Jaynes. Kaveri is the heiress to the Doucette-Browne family fortune so this is big news featured on a TV show. On the same show Rawley also claimed to find missing girl Danica Hansen, which shocks Emily because she is the real Danica Hansen. She's been living under a pseudonym to protect her identity. It is claimed that DNA proved their identity but Emily knows this can't be true. She and agent Andy Ryan are on the case.

This is a short book and the plot moves quickly. It is clear from the start that some shenanigans are underway by Rawley Jaynes and Kaveri's grandmother, Mackenzie Miller Browne. Emily's job is to uncover proof of this, but there is also more going than initially apparent. It also places Emily in an awkward position, does she reveal her true identity or keep it hidden. This dilemma does require a huge amount of disbelief to be suspended as I would imagine an FBI agent would be thoroughly vetted and and pseudonym would be outed.

There is also another plot point involving Emily's failing marriage. This was a whole lot less compelling than the main investigation and I could have done without it. However, I haven't read the other books in the series and that most certainly could influence my disinterest in Emily's personal drama. For those following the series there is character development in this outing.

The Girl from Nowhere is recommended for those who enjoy investigative mysteries and are following the series. Thanks to Storm Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.