October 1, 2017
California bounty hunter Alice Vega, who has a reputation for finding missing children, teams with disgraced detective-turned-private investigator Max Caplan to find two vanished girls, sisters Kylie and Bailey Brandt, who were abducted from a mall parking lot in a small rundown Pennsylvania town. With few witnesses and even fewer consistent stories, and little help from a local police force overwhelmed by budget cuts and a growing narcotics epidemic, Vega and Caplan track down every bit of evidence and interview many suspects in their determination to locate the girls. The slow pacing is deliberate, adding to the growing suspense, as the story line ultimately builds to a surprising conclusion. The omniscient third-person narrative allows a look into the main protagonists' thoughts and feelings, but readers should pay attention to the many supporting and minor characters as well, as the roles they play add to the intensity. VERDICT In her adult fiction debut, YA author Luna (Brave New Girl; Crooked) offers a fresh take on the typical procedural drama by introducing flawed investigators who work independently of traditional law enforcement. Readers who loved Rene Denfeld's The Child Finder might enjoy this gritty take.--Natalie Browning, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA
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Starred review from October 16, 2017
Best known as a YA author, Luna (Crooked) ventures into adult thriller territory with a real nail-biter. Single mother Jamie Brandt parks in a shopping center in Denville, Pa., leaving her two daughters—10-year-old Kylie and eight-year-old Bailey—in the car while she goes into a Kmart to buy a birthday present. When she returns to the car, the children have disappeared. The devastated Jamie’s take-charge aunt, Maggie Shambley, asks California bounty hunter Alice Vega to locate the girls. The complicated, blunt-talking Alice, who may be on the autism spectrum, has an uncanny knack for finding people. When the Denville police chief rejects Alice’s help, despite being besieged by budget cuts, low morale, and a rising oxycodone and meth epidemic, she teams up with Max Caplan, a disgraced former cop turned PI who knows the local area. Luna nicely charts how the aloof Alice comes to embrace a personal relationship. The brisk plot combines psychological suspense with solid action, while providing a realistic look at a family under siege, as it builds to a shocking finale. Agent: Mark Falkin, Falkin Literary.
October 15, 2017
A young female bounty hunter partners with a disgraced former cop to find a pair of missing girls. Single mother Jamie Brandt is late delivering her daughters to a birthday party, so she leaves 10-year-old Kylie and 8-year-old Bailey in the car while she runs into Kmart to buy a present. When she returns, the sisters are gone. Forty-eight hours pass without any leads, so Jamie's wealthy aunt hires renowned California bounty hunter Alice Vega to assist with the search. Vega hops the next plane to Denville, Pennsylvania, only to be frostily received by local law enforcement. Enter Max "Cap" Caplan, a private investigator who was forced to resign from the Denville PD three years prior but still has friends on the force. Vega agrees to share her fee with Cap if he'll call in some favors, and together they launch an investigation that shines a light on the darkest corners of rural Pennsylvania. Luna (Serious as a Heart Attack, 2005, etc.) excels at creating drama and sustaining tension, but her story relies too heavily on coincidence to fully satisfy, and the final plot twist goes unearned. Cap is an engaging and realistically flawed character, but the same can't be said for Vega, who is almost comically hard-bitten. The chapters told from her perspective are overwrought, and the attraction between her and Cap feels manufactured. What starts as a harrowing children-in-peril tale falls prey to cliche and melodrama.
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Starred review from November 1, 2017
Luna, known mainly for her YA novel Brave New Girl (2001), now offers an outstanding neo-noir, introducing enigmatic bounty hunter Alice Vega, a perfect female incarnation of Jack Reacher. Ultimately, it is not what she tells you about herself, but what she doesn't tell you, that makes her a riveting character. A Pennsylvania small-town police chief who thinks he's in a James Patterson book dismisses her as a girl with a gun who has watched too much Buffy but soon finds out that this woman is driven by a need to make it right that he will never fathom. She teams up with disgraced former cop turned PI Max Caplan, whose consolation for a troubled life comes in the form of a brilliant and independent teenage daughter, Nell, who finds instant intrigue in Vega. Two young sisters have disappeared from a local strip-mall parking lot. With little to go on, Vega and Cap go to extraordinary lengths in a highly unorthodox way, untangling an odd assortment of complex relationships, to rescue the girls as the hourglass drains down. Vega springs to life in the hands of this immensely talented writer. This is a must-read for fans of strong female protagonists, especially Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt and Jassy Mackenzie's Jade de Jong.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)