Detective Ellie Reeves is looking forward to attend a friend’s wedding. But the bride vanishes moments before walking down the aisle and the bridesmaid is found dead in the river.
The Girl in the River is the 7th book to feature Detective Ellie Reeves and her colleagues. There are no spoilers about the crimes of earlier books but there are continuations of the personal and relationship developments of Ellie’s life.
Ellie thinks she kows her friend Mia well and is looking forward to celebrating her wedding. But Mia’s disappearance leads to shocking revelations about her identity and Ellie needs to unpick the clues from the past and present to understand the situation.
The chapters are short and show multiple perspectives. This increases the pace as well as the tension as we make assumptions and links between characters and events. It also tempts you to keep reading as one more chapter becomes 3 or 4!
The Girl in the River is a tense and engaging detective thriller.
The body lay in the river, arms outstretched. Long brown hair swirled in all directions, flowing with the current of the water. Her eyes were wide open in death, pale pink lips parted in a scream.
Detective Ellie Reeves should be enjoying the wedding of her dear friend Mia Norman. But instead of celebrating, she is frantically searching for the missing bride. Something is terribly wrong—just hours ago, Mia was blissfully happy. Why would she suddenly vanish?
Bursting through the dressing room, Ellie finds it in disarray—chairs overturned, a perfume bottle shattered. Hiding in the bathroom is Mia’s six-year-old daughter Pixie, curled in a ball and sobbing her heart out. The little girl says she was locked inside when she heard a man’s voice, and her mother crying. “I just want my mommy back,” she pleads. Ellie vows to make that happen.
Turning the venue upside down, Ellie’s blood turns to ice when she reaches the riverbank. Someone is dead in the rippling water, floating beside a white veil. Ellie holds her breath as she turns the body over. It belongs to Tori, Mia’s bridesmaid, a gunshot wound in her back. Near the murder scene, Ellie discovers a button from a man’s shirt, and her friend’s engagement ring. The race is on to find Mia—before it’s too late.
When forensics come back, the investigation takes a dark turn. DNA proves that Mia was actually Jesse Habersham, a woman who went missing five years ago. Ellie is certain that Mia was running from someone. Did her past finally catch up with her?
Facing the most complex case of her career, Ellie is in a race against time. Can she uncover the truth before her friend is brutally killed? And when the murderer comes after innocent little Pixie, will Ellie save her from the clutches of death?
This pulse-pounding and utterly addictive crime thriller will have you staying up way past your bedtime, and scared to turn the lights off! Perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, Lisa Regan and Kendra Elliot.
Author Bio
USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Rita Herron fell in love with books at the ripe age of eight when she read her first Trixie Belden mystery. But she didn’t think real people grew up to be writers, so she became a teacher instead. Now she writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job.
With over ninety books to her credit, she’s penned romantic suspense, romantic comedy, and YA novels, but she especially likes writing dark romantic suspense and crime fiction set in small southern towns.
For more on Rita and her titles, visit her at www.ritaherron.com. You can also find her on Facebook/ritaherron.com and Twitter @ritaherron.
