cover image The Girl with No Name

The Girl with No Name

Lisa Regan. Grand Central, $12.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-5387-0123-2

Personal and professional concerns plague Josie Quinn, the recently installed Denton, Pa., chief of police, in Regan’s solid if improbable sequel to 2019’s Vanishing Girls. Josie should be looking forward to her wedding to state trooper Luke Creighton, but her fiancé has been distant and uncommunicative. Then Josie and Lt. Noah Fraley are called to the home of single mother Misty Derossi, who’s been severely beaten. Misty’s newborn baby is missing, and as Josie struggles to put together the scant evidence, she also tries to put aside her feelings—she detests Misty for having had an affair with her late husband, Ray. Meanwhile, Luke has disappeared and a mystery woman who claims to have amnesia is at his house, dressed in his shirt. As the bodies pile up, Josie and Noah widen their investigation, which has myriad twists. The police details buoy the story, even if it’s hard to believe that Josie is allowed to lead a case in which she has such a close tie to the victim. Josie, strong and intuitive, has enough substance to sustain a long series. (May)