Normally this isn't my type of book: where kids get kidnapped and people try to figure out what happened and where the kids are. But this book surprised me and I found myself caught up in the characters and the storyline. Julia is a single mother who does her best by her two daughters Kylie, ten-years-old and eight-year-old Bailey. One day in March Kylie has been invited to a party so Julie stops by K-Mart to get something for the girl, but leaves her daughters in the car knowing that she can accomplish this task quicker with them in the car not asking for something for themselves when she didn't have much money to spend and was hoping to have some left over to buy her aunt a gift. When she returns back to her car her kids are gone. She finds out that they had gotten out to use the bathroom at the ice cream shop, but after that, they disappeared.
The cops are looking with little success, so her sister Maggie hires a private investigator from California, Alice Vega who has a perfect track record in finding the people she goes looking for both children and adults. Though they don't always wind up alive, or if alive, all there. Vega seeks out the help of local private investigator Max "Cap" Caplan. He took the fall for one of the guys on the police force when a teen died in custody of a drug overdose and resigned. He's divorced with a smart teenage daughter that he has a special relationship with. He is able to provide her with the witness statements after a while and some convincing of Em the man he covered for who doesn't want to lose his job even if he does owe Cap.
Junior, the Captain of the police, provides them trouble until the Chief of Police finds out and insists that he work with them as they are getting things done. It turns out that Kyle kept a diary at her friend Cole's house. They go over there to get it and run into resistance with Cole's father who doesn't want them to have it. He wants to give it to the cops. The guy is an asshole lawyer and someone who knows who Cap is. They assure him that they are working with the cops and that it will be going to the cops. They barely make it out of there without a physical altercation.
Also, someone emailed them that the girl's case is connected to the disappearance of Nolan Marsh a twenty-five-year-old schizophrenic who went missing three years ago. They talk to his mother but don't get very far. She's dying. So Vega goes and talks to his younger brother, Evan, who is likely doing drugs but is still looking for his brother. When they crack Kyle's diary they find out who the mysterious guy is that she is in love with and it's not who you expect.
The camera angles from the stores indicate that Kylie knew and hugged the guy that she got in the car with. But there was more than one person involved. Jaime, her mother has no idea who it could be and they are depending on her diary to unveil his identity. But who is the other guy? Also, the FBI has gotten involved and they have two missing girls in the state of Pennsylvania with similar looks that both took ballet classes just like Kylie. So is there a connection?
This book turned out to far exceed my expectations. It was a real page-turner. The more I read the more I got sucked into the story and the characters. Vega is a tough woman who has been through a lot and refuses to lose or be treated like a second class citizen. Cap is a loveable guy who sees right through Vega's bullshit and calls her on it. This was a fantastic book that took me by surprise by how great it was. It got better and better the farther along you got into the book. I give it five out of five stars.
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Two-Girls-Down-Louisa-Luna/dp/0385542496/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DMIOLJ1DQ816&keywords=two+girls+down+by+louisa+luna&qid=1552307029&s=gateway&sprefix=two+girls+down%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1Perry would have said that if someone crosses you on the wrong day, you grab the nearest pint glass and shove it in their teeth. Don’t stew in your juices, don’t let anything sink in. Don’t wait, don’t bide your time, don’t dave your breath, don’t sleep on it. You don’t have the weight, kid, but you got the fire, so bur the motherfuckers to the bone.-Louise Luna (Two Girls Down p 139)It felt like a first date. Vega had never been on a first date. She could not remember sleeping with someone she hadn’t been in a fistfight with first.-Louise Luna (Two Girls Down p 153)
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