She’s just the girl he’s looking for.
A young woman falls from a vehicle speeding down a quiet road. Battered and bruised, she turns her head to the person who comes to her aid. ‘Help her’, she whispers before her eyes close.
Days later, the body of another young girl is found in a shallow grave just a few miles away. The similarities between the two girls are startling – same age, same frail body, same shocking red hair.
As the town fears there’s a serial killer living amongst them, Detective Gina Harte must put aside her own struggles at home, and catch the killer before he finds another perfect girl.
Thank you to Netgalley, Bookoture and Carla Kovach for the chance to read and review this book.
Her Pretty Bones is the third book in the Detective Gina Harte series and is every bit as exciting and heart stopping as the previous books. Once again it starts out strong, this time with an ominous prologue about two sisters. The older sister has a pale, sickly pallor and strawberry blonde curls and is smaller and weaker from being premature. Her younger sister resents her and punishes her for being the favourite and is adamant that anything the older sister has is hers too.
We then return to the present day where Toby is on his way to his new job early one summer morning when a woman appears to jump out of a white van and land in front of his car. She has a gash to her abdomen, is severely malnourished and her organs are failing. She also has red hair. While Gina and her team attempt to discover the woman’s identity, how she came to be in this state and who was driving the white van, another body is discovered in a shallow grave nearby. This young woman is also undernourished and has red hair. Who is this killer and where will he strike next? Also, who was the first girl referring to when with her final words she pleaded ‘Help her’?
This novel was full of suspense from the start. There were a vast array of characters who seemed unconnected but were expertly linked together as the story went on. There were some hard to read scenes in this book, mostly for me it was the ones that detailed the awful state that the woman being cared for was in. It was heartbreaking reading how such a vulnerable person could be neglected and harmed like that by those who claimed to love her. I was rooting for her to be saved as much as the girl forced to try and care for her night and day. As we raced to the conclusion the tension rose further and I was pulled into the story even more. I loved how the author weaved seemingly unconnected characters and parts of the story together in such a seamless way. There had been a few times I thought I had the culprit or where the story was going figured out only to be surprised and proven wrong.
Gina Harte shows herself time and again to be a fighter for those who can’t fight for themselves, a voice for those who can’t speak and a woman to admire and look to as a modern day heroine. She has a strong sense of right and wrong and is tormented by her failings. She gives her all to her job and the victims who need her, often to the detriment of her personal life. The more books in this series I read, the more I fall in love with this character, and with this author.
Ms. Kovach has a talent for writing captivating, multilayered stories that show both the best and the worst that humankind are capable of. She puts your emotions through the wringer as you read and has you on the edge of your seat as the suspense makes it impossible to put the book down. A riveting psychological thriller, this is a crime series not to be missed and an author who is a must read for sure.
Out January 17th
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