“Two Girls Down” by Louisa Luna

“Two Girls Down” by Louisa Luna

She’ll only be a minute. That’s what Jamie Brandt thought when she carelessly left her two girls in the car while dashing into K-Mart to buy a birthday gift. An action that she later regretted when she returned to her car a few minutes later to find her girls missing.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book! When I began, I thought, OK, another deadbeat parent who pays absolutely no attention to her children and whines when something bad happens to them.

In the first few pages of the book, Jamie Brandt declares she “was not a bad mother”. Really? Curse words, alcohol and drugs just to make it through a short drive and kid’s birthday party? I hated her from the first few pages of the book.

Cue Alice Vega. She is called in by Jamie’s wealthy and much more high class Aunt to find the girls as her specialty is locating missing children. Alice enlists the aid of Max Caplan, a local disgraced policeman turned private investigator.

The book details their attempts to find the girls and those responsible. I don’t want to give anything away, but it was fantastic! I could not put it down. The twists and turns to get to the end were great and the reasoning behind the disappearance was a unique twist.

My only issue with the book was that the author mentioned three security guards at K-Mart. I have never known a K-Mart to have three security guards on duty at one time!

In the end, I cut Jamie some slack. Mother of the year? No. But she is a single mother and does love her girls. After all, sometimes even I dream of putting another beverage in my travel mug to get through another birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese!

According to the notes at the end of the book, this is the author’s first foray into adult literature. She has written a couple of YA books. However, Goodreads lists another first published in 2004. This one was good enough that I plan to read her others!

Publication Date: January 9, 2018

Genre:  Thriller, suspense, mystery, crime, detective

Cover:  OK

Rating: 4.5 stars (rounded to 5)

Source:  I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this great book!