Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

 

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter - 432 pages

Twenty years ago Claire Scott's eldest sister, Julia, went missing. No one knew where she went - no note, no body. It was a mystery that was never solved and it tore her family apart.

Now another girl has disappeared, with chilling echoes of the past. And it seems that she might not be the only one.

Claire is convinced Julia's disappearance is linked.

But when she begins to learn the truth about her sister, she is confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same...

This was a brutal but good read.

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka - 321 pages

This debut mystery is very compelling.  PI Roxane Weary is in a real bad place dealing with the aftermath of her Columbus, Ohip police detective father's murder in the line of duty along with a slew of personal issues.  Her brother throws her a bone with a case brought to him by a friend to locate a potential missing witness to save the friend's brother from the death penalty.  Roxane spirals through relationships with both sexes and alcohol to a very dark place as she tries desperately to find the truth as to what happened when a family was murdered and a young girl went missing so long ago.

This would be a great opener to a series and I'd definitely read more to follow Roxane and her struggles to find stable ground in her life.  

The Taking by Kimberly Derting

The Taking by Kimberly Derting  357 pages

The last thing Kyra Agnew remembers is a flash of bright light. She awakes to discover that five whole years have passed. Everyone in her life has moved on - her parents divorced, her boyfriend is in college and dating her best friend - but Kyra's still the sixteen-year-old she was when she vanished. She finds herself drawn to Tyler, her boyfriend's kid brother, despite her best efforts to ignore her growing attraction. In order to find out the truth, the two of them decide to retrace her steps from that fateful night. They discover there are others who have been "taken," just like Kyra. Only, Kyra is the first person to have been returned past the forty-eight-hour taken mark. With a determined, secret government agency after her, Kyra desperately tries to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had . . . but what if the life she wants back is not her own?