Riley Tatum is a Virginia state trooper now, but twelve years ago she very nearly died at the hands of a serial killer in her childhood home of New Orleans. It was a painful lesson in the dangers of the streets she had fled to when her mother died and her stepfather proved to be a predator, and she still has no idea how she escaped and wound up at a bus stop in Virginia.
Riley is a topnotch investigator who had the chance to be promoted to agent, but turned it down to stay with her search dog, Cooper. She's also in the process of adopting a former runaway, Hannah, and is just a couple of weeks away from the adoption being finalized. The last think she needs, she feels, is her carefully concealed past to come out now, and possibly mess up the adoption.
But best-laid plans and all...
She's called to the scene of a dead body, a teenage girl about the age she was when she was kidnapped off the streets of New Orleans. A girl who, as the local sheriff as well as other officers notice, has a fair degree of similarity to her.
Riley claims not to see the resemblance, and sets about investigating the case like any other, but the similarities mount up. At the same time, a man from her somewhat more recent past reappears--the best instructor she had at the police academy, and, very briefly, her lover. Clay Bowman is now working for a private security firm, Shields Security, which is investigating this case for reasons of their own.
Riley's past, Bowman's, the past of the shelter operator, Duke Squires, who rescued Riley from the streets when she arrived in Virginia, all come into play. Lurking behind it all is the serial killer himself, who has kept himself very well hidden until now. Both the characters and the mystery are very well constructed. It's all very well done.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
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