The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond

The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three missing girls, no leads, a vault of dark secrets, and a case that's getting chillier by the minute, set the stage for this nail-biting procedural from former cold case homicide detective and acclaimed author Lissa Marie Redmond.

Three college freshmen go missing from their rural hometown of Kelly's Falls while on Christmas break. Their cell phones, coats, and purses are left behind, but the girls have disappeared without a trace. As the days turn into weeks and the investigation grows cold, twenty-three year old Buffalo police officer Shea O'Connor is called on to dig up leads undercover.

Still bearing the emotional and physical scars of a previous case, O'Connor infiltrates as eighteen-year-old Shea Anderson, a college freshman and the "niece" of the town's police chief. As she begins to immerse herself in the missing girls' world, befriending their friends and family, and doing whatever it takes to maintain her cover, O'Connor realizes the track is far colder than she initially thought. But whoever was behind the girls' disappearance was only warming up, and they have set their crosshairs directly on her.

The heat is on for O'Connor as she closes in on the shocking truth about what really happened the night the girls vanished.

• Publisher: Crooked Lane Books 
• Publish Date: April 7, 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 164385299X

                                                            REVIEW:

“If I had known the best thing that was going to happen to me that day was a black eye, I would have called in sick.”
-Shea O’Connor

First sentence:

Christmas Break - Skyler slammed the front door behind them as they rushed in against the biting winter wind.

When three college girls disappear over Christmas break, Boston police officer, Shea O’Connor is asked by the FBI to go undercover and infiltrate the college. Purposely involving herself in the lives and friendships of the three missing girls, Shea struggles to keep up with her undercover persona and the lies she has to tell to people she’s beginning to like and see as friends.

Shea is not a stranger to undercover work; she’s still suffering the trauma of the first case that FBI agent Bill Walters assigned her to. Nobody, including her fellow officers, know that Shea was the turning point in the arrest of a brutal serial killer in her first undercover case. Shea is a wonderful protagonist. She’s witty and clever with just enough snark to keep her interestingly likeable!

The Secrets They Left Behind is great suspenseful mystery with a complex story-line and just enough red herrings to keep me guessing and ultimately, surprised at the ending. I’ll be reading Ms. Redmond past and future work from now on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with this title to read and review!

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