The Girl Left Behind Book Review ~A Modern Police Procedural

A teen girl goes missing from a small farm town in Connecticut. Detective Linda Kane is faced with finding Cassie despite the case  triggering childhood memories of her best friend’s disappearance. 

The Girl Left Behind is intense at the start- descriptive, free flowing and fast paced. I had an immediate connection with the characters with whom Phelps spent a lot of time building depth. 

I’m very excited that Detective Kane could be a reoccurring character with her own series. Apparently, the full title is The Girl Left Behind (A Linda Kane Thriller, Book 1 of 1).

A police procedural in these modern times can no longer avoid hard topics and Phelps covers intense current police issues such as the opiod epidemic and Black Lives Matter. He creates an interesting perspective from the police side where the main character is uninvolved in a shooting but still part of “the system.”

There are a few cheesy run-of-the-mill characters such as the sassy blond crime network reporter who will do anything to get a scoop. 

Also, there were a lot of storylines happening, especially throughout the middle. The main storyline of the missing girl gets so lost. Hopefully, this was a character building book and the second Linda Kane story will get to the point. 

Overall, I felt this was a great book and I will be reading the Linda Kane series. We have enough initial information about the characters for a long haul series. Okay, I’m going to make a statement and you should not take this lightly. I love all things Harry Bosch and Michael Connelly. And I really feel that Linda Kane has the potential to be the next Bosch. I know, that’s big, but I’m going to put it out there. Please don’t disappoint me Mr. Phelps! I will eagerly be awaiting book two.

Thank you BookSirens and M Williams Phelps for a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.