Genre: Mystery
Format read: hard copy
Content warnings: alcohol abuse, implied child abuse, sexual assault (off page)
Positive rep: LGBTQIA, addiction recovery
Rating: 

***This review contains minor spoilers***

Roxane Weary, PI, has always had a contentious relationship with her father.

It might be even worse, now that he’s dead.

Frank Weary was a stubborn, work-a-holic alcoholic detective, and his daughter is no different. To top it off, Roxane is still trying to cope (or possibly avoid) the fact that her father was killed suddenly in the line of duty six months earlier.

Scraping along rock bottom and still denying she has a problem, Roxane’s newest case lands on her desk courtesy of her condescending older brother. She takes it mostly to get him off her back–and also to make sure she can keep a roof over hear head and whiskey in her glass for another month or so.

There’s just one problem: Her new client, Danielle, wants to find someone who’s practically a ghost. Someone who has been missing for years–and the only person who can get her brother off death row before his execution in two months.

Reluctantly, Roxane agrees to make some initial inquiries. The case against Danielle’s brother Brad seems questionable. Accused of killing his girlfriend’s parents while in high school, his girlfriend, Sarah, has never been found. Unfortunately, the knife that did the deed was in his car, for reasons he can’t explain.

While Sarah remains elusive, it quickly becomes clear that something is up with the local cops, who question Roxane every time she shows up in town to work, threatening her with arrest if she doesn’t leave.

That in itself is enough to make suborn, contrary Roxane dig in her heels.

Her investigation turns up a string of similar crimes, including one her father was the lead detective on.

The revelation sends Roxane into a passionate downward spiral, clouding her judgement. But the clock isn’t just ticking for Brad–when another girl goes missing, Roxane only has a matter of hours to solve the case before another teenage girl ends up dead.

With an alcoholic in my own family, this book was difficult for me to read in places. But despite her flaws, Roxane has many redeeming qualities, my favorite one being her relationship with Shelby, the daughter of one of the earlier victims. Shelby has an obvious but silent crush on her best friend, which bisexual Roxane can relate to. She provides a willing ear and a big-sister type role for the teen. I really hope Shelby shows up in later books.

My one complaint with this book is that some of the physical descriptions of characters were lacking, so it was occasionally difficult to keep some of them straight, or know who would be familiar with what based on their age. This meant that for me, the culprit came out of nowhere, but a better description might have put him on my suspect list sooner.

This book was full of twists that still felt completely natural, and I am really looking forward to reading the second book in the series.