The deeply flawed but intrepid Laura Chambers, from the "dark and vivid rabbit hole" (David Bell) of a thriller Last Girl Gone,
finds herself lost in the deadly webs of small town secrets as she
hunts for the truth about her father, who mysteriously disappeared
several years ago.
Tell me two truths and a lie.
A
year after her tangle with a local killer that left her disfigured,
Laura is done licking her wounds. And she's done with the small town of
Hillsborough, North Carolina. But the sheriff just found the mangled
body of a woman who was reported missing several weeks ago. Her last
phone call was to Laura.
With an unidentifiable face, Laura can't
shed light on why she was this woman's final call. To break free of the
hostile sheriff's suspicion, Laura digs into the history of the
deceased. What she finds completely upturns all she thought she knew or
remembered. It's an old picture of Laura from when she was just a young
girl, standing with her father, her father's best friend, and another
little girl who Laura could have sworn was just a figment of her
imagination. What else has she been mistaking for fiction? For truth?
And more importantly--what did this woman have to do with her missing
father? What was she calling to tell Laura?
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What I thought about What Lies Beneath
When reporter Laura Chambers is called into the investigation of a fatal
vehicular incident, it turns out her roots are quite deep in the bigger
mystery of why a Jane Doe calls her minutes before she is killed.
Laura
is an interesting character. She's not above fibbing or worse to get
what she needs in her investigation. She wasn't always likable to me,
and that was a surprise for this reader. I liked that Laura wasn't my
favorite character in this story.
As Laura's investigation
continues, she learns that she has connections to the mysterious victim
and to the local man on death row, called the Shotgun Slayer. When she
finally puts it all together, there's certain danger for her as she
uncovers the family secrets, real motivations and killers.
I
liked how all the clues came together in this story. I did think it took
a little while for this reader to get into the story, but somewhere
after all the clues started making sense and the pace picked up, I fell
into it and couldn't read to the end fast enough to find out how it all
fit together.
I also thought that things really worked for me
when Laura was partnered up with FBI Agent Timinski. There was a certain
energy to the story when these two characters were together that left
me wanting more of their story.
When I selected this book to read
and review, I didn't realize it's the second book in a series. I have
not read this author before. It didn't keep me from enjoying this book,
and this one works as a standalone. I can't say how much reading book 1
would have enhanced Laura Chambers' background for this reader. Maybe I
would have liked her more, I don't know, but this book works as a
standalone and you might be intrigued to learn more about her. I liked
the writing in the second half of the book a bit more than the first
half.
Overall, a well-crafted mystery with characters who are
often difficult to like, but also interesting and complex. I would read
another book by this author and I may have to find some space in my
reading list to catch up by reading book one in the series.
Last Girl Gone, the first book in this series
is currently on sale for $1.99 on the Zon.
About the Author
J.G. Hetherton was raised in rural Wisconsin, graduated from Northwestern University, and lived in Chicago for the better part of a decade. Along the way to his first novel, he dabbled in many different day jobs before moving to North Carolina for a girl. They live in Durham, North Carolina with their twin daughters, and when he’s not writing, you can find him on the hiking trail or sitting down with a good book.
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