The body of a pregnant teen is found but the victim disappeared two years ago. Where had she been for all that time? Chief Riley is given a photo of another girl being held against her will but can she find her before it is too late…?
The Shadow Girl is the third book in the Maggie Riley series set in America. I have read and reviewed the first book in the series, The Girl Who Lied.
Chief Maggie Riley has a new lieutenant and a new case. A girl’s body and another missing teen but the latter’s mother is convinced that her daughter is safe and well and the photo has been faked. Maggie can’t help but investigate as the fear in the girl’s eyes is so real.
The book is written from multiple perspectives but mainly Maggie’s. Some of the perspectives are not given names so we are kept guessing about their identity which builds the tension. I liked the introduction of Kal as the new lieutenant and felt that the issue of racism was handled sensitively.
Maggie is still haunted by her little brother’s disappearance and the subsequent loss of her detective career five years ago. In this book her mum turns up claiming to have found the man who took the boy but Maggie has doubts. She struggles to negotiate the personal and professional balance. Meanwhile, Maggie’s fiance Steve is still hiding secrets and this book reveals the fear he has of Maggie finding out. I’m looking forward to reading what happens next!
The Shadow Girl is an intriguing and tense crime thriller.
Ever since I tried to escape, he’s been keeping me in the dark. My bones ache with the cold. The longer I sit, trapped alone with just my thoughts, the more I worry… What if this is it? What if I never get to leave?
The sun is rising on another cold winter’s day in Coyote Cove when Chief Maggie Riley finds an unmarked envelope on the steps of the police station. Inside is a photo of a teenage girl, bound and bruised. Maggie’s heart constricts at the terror in her tear-filled eyes. Who is she? What has happened to her? Who would have left this photo, but done nothing else to help?
Maggie moved to Coyote Cove for a quieter life after her beloved young brother went missing five years ago. And this case feels as personal as anything she’s worked on since then. With no one reporting the girl missing, seemingly unloved and forgotten, Maggie vows to rescue her, and bring whoever hurt her to justice.
As Maggie mines the photograph for clues to hunt down the girl and her captor, her search takes her deep into the seedy, dangerous underbelly of the secretive logging camps. Hidden away in the woods, a law unto themselves, Maggie is in uncharted—and deadly—territory.
Then she finds the body of a girl who was said to have run away years ago, one with ties of her own to the loggers. And Maggie knows she’s on the right track. But as her search for the truth intensifies, Maggie’s own safety is threatened. Can she save an innocent girl’s life and get out alive herself, or could this be the one investigation she won’t survive…?
A dark and totally gripping crime thriller, perfect for fans of D.K. Hood, Melinda Leigh and Lisa Regan.
Author Bio
With degrees in Crime Scene Technology & Physical Anthropology, Florida author Shannon Hollinger hasn’t just seen the dark side of humanity – she’s been elbow deep inside of it! She finds writing to be a much cleaner way to spend her time than the autopsy suite. Most days it smells better, too.
Her debut novel, the psychological thriller Best Friends Forever, is the first of a five-book deal with publisher Bookouture.
Her short fiction has appeared in Suspense Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and The Saturday Evening Post, among a number of other magazines and anthologies, and her story Lady Killer was a finalist for the 2021 Al Blanchard Award sponsored by the New England Crime Bake.
