Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Seven Girls Gone by Allison Brennan Narrator: Suzanne Gutierrez
Series: Quinn & Costa #4
Published by Harlequin Audio, HarperAudio on April 25, 2023
Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Length: 12 hours, 48 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Libro.fm, Barnes & Noble, Apple
For three years, women have been disappearing—and eventually turning up dead in the small bayou town of St. Augustine, Louisiana. Police detective Beau Hebert is the only one who seems to care, but with every witness quickly silenced and a corrupt police department set on keeping the cases unsolved, Beau’s investigation stalls at every turn.
With nobody else to trust, Beau calls in a favor from his friend on the FBI’s Mobile Response Team. While LAPD detective Kara Quinn works undercover to dig into the women’s murders and team leader Matt Costa officially investigates the in-custody death of a witness, Beau might finally have a chance at solving the case.
But in a town where everyone knows everyone, talking gets you killed and secrets stay buried, it’s going to take the entire team working around the clock to unravel the truth. Especially when they discover that the deep-seated corruption and the deadly drug-trafficking ring at the center of it all extends far beyond the small-town borders.
The Quinn & Costa series captivated me from the beginning. Kara Quinn is incredibly smart and skilled, having been undercover for 12 years with the LAPD. Her cover was blown so it’s best for her to be somewhere other than LA where the bad guys want to kill her. They already killed her partner. So she takes a job with the new mobile response team with the FBI, although she is not an FBI agent.
Matt is the team leader who has picked every person on the team because of their talents and ability to work with the team. Kara and Matt are attracted to each other, but have agreed they will be professional during a case. They are surprisingly good at that compartmentalizing. Kara has led a life which doesn’t lend itself to trusting or falling in love with anyone. She has made close friends on the team, except for Catherine. They don’t like each other.
The current case is set in Louisiana where the good ole boys control everything from drugs, human trafficking and have their own brothel. They rule the town and most people are too afraid to get on their radar. But now five women are dead and two are missing. A police detective was in the Navy with Michael and asks for help. Things are much more complicated than what he sees as a serial killer. Kara taps into the reality, although there is little evidence and the others don’t believe her initially, other than Matt, and oddly, Catherine.
Kara connects to the locals to get the information they really need. Her ability to be undercover helps her listen and observe what is happening in some key places. The takedown of the criminals is tenuous and highly dangerous.
Kara has been personally thinking she would go back to LA after the case in court. So she hasn’t gotten a place in DC. Matt wants her on the team and in his life, and he has broached the personal relationship with his boss. Kara is skittish but she does care for Matt. I hope they have made some relationship progress in Seven Girls Gone and can’t wait for more of their cases.
Narration:
The narrator, Suzanne Guterriez Fortin, has been with the whole series. She is Kara in my mind. The female and male voices feel comfortable with the male voices more husky in tone. There were some Southern accents that seemed right here. I enjoyed her performance at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Allison Brennan
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Allison Brennan believes that life is too short to be bored, so she had five children and writes three books a year. Allison recently relocated from Northern California to Arizona with her husband and two youngest children.
Allison has penned more than three dozen thrillers and many short stories. COLD SNAP was a finalist for Best Thriller in the Thriller Awards (ITW) and FEAR NO EVIL (2007) and COMPULSION (2015) won the Daphne du Maurier award. Allison has been nominated multiple times for RWA’s Best Romantic Suspense award, and the Kiss of Death’s Daphne award. She currently writes the Lucy Kincaid/Sean Rogan thriller series, and is launching the Mobile Response Team series in February 2020.
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I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 23-COYER
I have this coming up this month and glad to see you’re still enjoying the series, Anne💜
Thanks. I love this series. The mystery plots alone would be fantastic. Kara is a complex person and her character growth is a big plus.
I want to read this, but not at £16 for something I don’t own
I also recommended it at my library and it came available the day after it released. I have found and joined every library I can qualify to have.
I love the Louisianna setting, and Kara sounds like a wonderful protagonist😁
Kara is complex and I really like her growth and skills. The mystery would suffer without her street smarts.
Love these kinds of novels, I’m checking it out!
It’s a fantastic series Debbie. If you can, I would read from the beginning. They are all excellent.
I am looking forward to this one.
I was also because I really love this whole series. Kara is a great character
I love that this series showcases a variety of locations and situations along with the ongoing personal and relationship plot threads. I read the first book and loved it.
Yes! It is really a favorite series right now. The changing locations is interesting too.
I love when a series keeps the same narrator. This looks a bit darker than I usually read but definitely worth reading! I’ve been wanting to read this author for awhile. I’ll have to pick up the first in this series.
yes I would start at the beginning of this series because of the character development supporting all the cases. It is definitely darker, not a cozy.
I love the sound of this one!
I’m enjoying everything Allison Brennan these days.
Love these kinds of novels, I’m checking it out!
I hope you get a chance to read it and enjoy! I am a big fan of Allison Brennan. Seven Girls Gone is the 4th in the series. You might want to start with the first book for the character progression.
I really enjoyed this one too! I also hope we get more progress with Matt and Kara’s relationship. I’m looking forward to the next one.
I think we will get more romance eventually because she also writes romantic suspense, perhaps classifies these books that way. Her early trilogies definitely had more romance.
I really want to start this series at some point. I always hear such good things about it.
I love it. I’m a fan of everything I have read by Allison Brennan. These new series have more mystery thriller. Some of the old trilogies are more romantic suspense.
I need a good thriller soon.
Well I love this series and it is mystery thriller with some romantic elements. If you want even higher octane thriller you could go with Falling or Drowning by TJ Newman.