"Keep your small towns, thought Cap. Give me a city where I don’t recognize the corpse."

Alice Vega is my favorite new protagonist in a mystery/thriller. She lives in California but tracks down missing kids from all over. Her fees aren't cheap but she's very good at what she does. She's tough, smart and kick-a**.

She's called in to the small town of Denville, Pennsylvania by the family of two missing sisters, ages ten and eight. Their single mom left them in the car while she quickly ran into the store for a birthday present and when she comes out they are gone.

The local police don't want her help, which really doesn't matter too much to her, so she enlists the help of an ex-cop from the local police department - Max "Cap" Caplan, who is getting tired of tracking down straying spouses and welcomes the chance to help. Soon they find this case is even more involved than they first thought.

I liked Vega. I liked Cap. The story is well-written and kept me guessing all the way through. I hope this is the start of a series with these two working together. I'm not usually a huge fan of series books but I would definitely read more about this pair.

I received this book from Penguin Random House through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read the book and leave an unbiased review.

WOW! I feel like I was a guest star in a huge criminal investigation episode! 
Cast of Main Characters...
Cap ~ ex-cop turned Private Investigator
Nell ~ Cap's teenage daughter
Alex Vega - Private Investigator from CA 
Jamie Brandt - young mom of missing daughters
Kylie Brandt - Jamie's 10 year old missing daughter
Bailey Brandt - Jamie's 8 year old missing daughter
Young and spunky mom Jamie Brandt and her two young daughters jump in the car one day, late for a birthday party.  The girls all dressed up and anxious to get to the party agree to wait in the car for their mother who still had to run into K-Mart to buy the gift to give to the girl when they arrived at the party....LATE of course!  Kylie and Bailey grow impatient.  But, eventually mom comes out ready to go.  
When she gets to the car and realizes the girls are gone, she automatically assumes that they are hiding or playing around!  So, she starts screaming for them, growing impatient herself.  Who has time for that? 
But as the minutes turn to hours, she realizes that this is no joke! Her girls are missing!  Before she knows it, the police are involved, the media is notified and the community is horrified.  Jamie's parents, Gail and Arnel, don't have the patience to wait for the understaffed, overworked police department to find her grandchildren, so she hires Ms. Alexa Vega.  Vega is a PI with an excellent track record for finding missing people.  As she gets involved, recruits Cap for his connections with the police department, and uses her own round-about ways...the story of the missing girls unravels.  
Readers won't believe who ends up being involved, what lengths they have to go through to solve this mystery, and who gets hurt and possibly dies in the process!  We read hundreds of thrillers and mysteries each year and when an author can keep us guessing until the end, it makes us LOVE this genre even more!  We look forward to getting our paper copy of this title and reading more from this talented author!
Good luck Ms. Louisa Luna and Bookouture Digital Publishing on this adventure!

Such a great book! This book kept me guessing from the beginning to the end. There were a few times that I thought maybe I knew what was going on but soon my hypothesis was turned upside down. I love Alice Vega's attitude and how she much ass she kicked. It was so awesome how all the things they cops couldn't do without a warrant, these two could. I never saw such an ending coming; I really the writing style that the author use to end this book. I also like how looking back, the author dropped hints that tied into the ending. I would absolutely recommend this book!

I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the opportunity!

An intense thriller based in my very own state of Pennsylvania... which doesn't paint the state in a very flattering light, but makes a valid point about a lot of small towns in America. This is an unpredictable book with a lot of action and twists, involving so many suspects that it's dizzying.

Hired by the family of two missing girls, Alice Vega drops everything and makes the trip to Pennsylvania from California. Only ten and eight, it's clear that this isn't a case of the girls just taking off. Their mother has issues of her own, but is clearly devastated and fraught with worry. If only she hadn't left them in that car to run into the store without being begged for toys or candy... if only they hadn't stopped at all. The clock is ticking, and everyone knows that the longer the young girls are missing, the less likely it is they'll be found alive. Vega enlists disgraced ex-cop and current private investigator Max Caplan to help, pulling him from his usual sordid cases into something much darker. He resists at first, but gives in. She'll need his old connections, his brain, and occasionally to rein her in.

High points include the complicated case, the weirdly charming banter between Alice and Max, the relationship between Max and his extremely likeable daughter Nell, and the unpredictability. My issues with the book are few. Vega seems too badass to be real life, and occasionally so many suspects and characters got a little confusing and I had to look back. A solid missing person thriller that manages to inject something new into a popular genre!

Could this possibly be the start of a series? I'd certainly read the next one. I could also see it as either a series or mini-series on TV, it would certainly be one that kept you on the edge of your seat.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Net Galley and Doubleday Books, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

You said every day we make a million little choices, and we should try to make the right ones as much as we can. And you said rarely in life do the big choices present themselves, so when they do, we have to take advantage of the opportunity. We have to do the right thing.”
~Nell (one smart daughter)
WOW! I feel like I was a guest star in a huge criminal investigation episode!
Cast of Main Characters…

Cap ~ ex-cop turned Private Investigator
Nell ~ Cap’s teenage daughter
Alex Vega – Private Investigator from CA
Jamie Brandt – young mom of missing daughters
Kylie Brandt – Jamie’s 10 year old missing daughter
Bailey Brandt – Jamie’s 8 year old missing daughter
YOUNG AND SPUNKY MOM JAMIE BRANDT AND HER TWO YOUNG DAUGHTERS JUMP IN THE CAR ONE DAY, LATE FOR A BIRTHDAY PARTY. THE GIRLS ALL DRESSED UP AND ANXIOUS TO GET TO THE PARTY AGREE TO WAIT IN THE CAR FOR THEIR MOTHER WHO STILL HAD TO RUN INTO K-MART TO BUY THE GIFT TO GIVE TO THE GIRL WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT THE PARTY….LATE OF COURSE! KYLIE AND BAILEY GROW IMPATIENT. BUT, EVENTUALLY MOM COMES OUT READY TO GO.
WHEN SHE GETS TO THE CAR AND REALIZES THE GIRLS ARE GONE, SHE AUTOMATICALLY ASSUMES THAT THEY ARE HIDING OR PLAYING AROUND! SO, SHE STARTS SCREAMING FOR THEM, GROWING IMPATIENT HERSELF. WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT?
BUT AS THE MINUTES TURN TO HOURS, SHE REALIZES THAT THIS IS NO JOKE! HER GIRLS ARE MISSING! BEFORE SHE KNOWS IT, THE POLICE ARE INVOLVED, THE MEDIA IS NOTIFIED AND THE COMMUNITY IS HORRIFIED. JAMIE’S PARENTS, GAIL AND ARNEL, DON’T HAVE THE PATIENCE TO WAIT FOR THE UNDERSTAFFED, OVERWORKED POLICE DEPARTMENT TO FIND HER GRANDCHILDREN, SO SHE HIRES MS. ALEXA VEGA. VEGA IS A PI WITH AN EXCELLENT TRACK RECORD FOR FINDING MISSING PEOPLE. AS SHE GETS INVOLVED, RECRUITS CAP FOR HIS CONNECTIONS WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, AND USES HER OWN ROUND-ABOUT WAYS…THE STORY OF THE MISSING GIRLS UNRAVELS.
READERS WON’T BELIEVE WHO ENDS UP BEING INVOLVED, WHAT LENGTHS THEY HAVE TO GO THROUGH TO SOLVE THIS MYSTERY, AND WHO GETS HURT AND POSSIBLY DIES IN THE PROCESS! WE READ HUNDREDS OF THRILLERS AND MYSTERIES EACH YEAR AND WHEN AN AUTHOR CAN KEEP US GUESSING UNTIL THE END, IT MAKES US LOVE THIS GENRE EVEN MORE! WE LOOK FORWARD TO GETTING OUR PAPER COPY OF THIS TITLE AND READING MORE FROM THIS TALENTED AUTHOR!
GOOD LUCK MS. LOUISA LUNA AND BOOKOUTURE DIGITAL PUBLISHING ON THIS ADVENTURE!

Thank you to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.


Jamie is the single mother of Kylie and Bailey, one day while on the way to a birthday party she stops at Kmart for the gift when she returns to the car they are gone. Her sister hires famed private investigator Alice Vega to find the girls.


Alice hires Cap to help her and the two begin looking at everything. The deeper they look the worse it looks. Meanwhile Jamie is losing it at the thought of never seeing her girls again.


I know my description was super short but there are so many twists in this book that I can't reveal them all it will ruin this experience. I couldn't stop reading, and man did I love Alice Vega. I say to you that I am really heartbroken this isn't a start to a series because I could read about Alice Vega solving cases every single day for the next year and not begin to tire of her.


This book is horribly dark and scary, and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what Alice and Cap would find. Would it be good news? or bad news or maybe a bit of both. This is my first book by this author but it won't be the last. I feel like I am not even expressing this the right way, I want to rave about this book, but I don't want to give away even a single twist. The way the author ties it all together is masterful.


I mean I won't lie I had no clue, I suspected like two pieces of the puzzle, but not in the right way at all. Normally I have a pretty decent idea of what is going to happen or who did it, but this kept throwing me every time another twist was revealed.

I loved this book. I would have never have guessed the outcome. I was very much blown away when it finally was all revealed. This book kept me guessing the entire way. When I thought I had it figured out, a curveball would be thrown. I definitely recommend this book.

This novel was absolutely mesmerizing! I particularly liked the two investigators, Alice Vega and Max Caplan, and the way the investigation was handled. Louisa describes her characters in such detail that you can clearly picture the scene she is writing. Her descriptions of the interactions between the characters every step of the way through the investigation is so good! This novel is set in the small town of Denville, Pennsylvania. Jamie Brandt's two young daughters, Kylie and Bailey, have disappeared from a strip mall parking lot. One of Jamie's relatives hires investigator Alice Vega to investigate their disappearance. Vega is intelligent and very good at what she does. Vega brings Caplan on board to help with the investigation. Vega and Caplan quickly learn the best way to efficiently work together. They follow lead after lead, hoping they won't run out of time to save the girls. Vega's dark memories are presented in pieces throughout the story, adding to the tension building. Nothing was what I expected with this novel. This novel explores kidnapping, drugs, and crime. It also explores the intricacies of family relationships. Pay attention and make sure you have time to read, because you will not be able to put this novel down once you start it!

This book is definitely a book I would recommend to those who love crime thriller mysteries. The author does such an amazing job at developing the characters and pulling you into this story, which is not an easy task. Everyone needs to take a chance on this author if you love thrilling books, which are written well and defined in a way that makes you keep turning pages!

What a fantastic read! TWO GIRLS DOWN is Lisbeth Salander meets Cormoran Strike. The dynamic between the two characters is so captivating and it's a great addition to the anticipation and thrill of the case. With a shockingly unexpected ending, TWO GIRLS DOWN is the perfect suspense story to start off the year.

This is a quick read and a fun one. I received my copy free and early in exchange for this honest review courtesy of Net Galley and Doubleday. It becomes available to the public tomorrow, January 9, 2018.

A frazzled mother in a small Pennsylvania town pops into a big-box store one afternoon, leaving her two elementary-aged girls in the car. They’re old enough not to wander off with some weirdo, and she’s just going to be a minute. When she comes back, they’re gone.

Our protagonists in equal measure are Cap, a former cop who’s left the force in disgrace, and Vega, an out-of-state PI brought in by the girls’ relatives. Vega seeks Cap out after the local cop shop refuses to work with her; sparks fly.

If you take the story apart and look at its elements, it is all old material and should be stale. We have the missing children; a single grieving female detective, a vigilante type with little to lose; a slightly-older, single-dad, lonely older male detective, all of which leads to romance, because heaven forbid we should ever have a competent female private eye without a sizzling chemical frisson to keep readers from feeling threatened by her competence. We have the single dad’s (also-competent) teenage daughter left alone for long periods of time, vulnerable to the forces of evil. And of course our female detective has to be diminutive, a tiny-firecracker type. Even Vega’s love of firearms isn’t new; consider Kinsey Millhone and Stephanie Plum. And our female detective has to be a very light eater. God forbid she should chow down at dinner time; no, she pushes her food around and away.

The pieces of this thing have been done to death. And yet.

And yet, the whole of the story is so much more than the sum of its parts. A strong writer can take overdone elements and make them gleam, and that’s what Luna has done here.

The thing that makes it work is the element of surprise. When I am looking ahead, I can often see, in a broad sense, where we are going, but when I try to predict how we’ll get there, I see three possibilities, and Luna always comes up with a fourth at the most unexpected of times. Vega’s “roofless rage” gives her a no-holds-barred, Dirty-Harry-Lite kind of approach; she’s never killed anyone, but if she’s always as off the wall as she is here, it’s a miracle. But the other miracle? The fact that I am wondering what she is like at other times demonstrates how well Luna has developed her characters. Cap is a well of timeworn chivalrous decency, but Vega wants to take the kind of people that would deliberately hurt a child and “put them in the fucking earth.”

Luna uses lots of crackling dialogue and a spare prose style that makes this book accessible to anyone that finished the eighth grade, and possibly some that didn’t. Although there’s no indication that this will become a series, one has to wonder if such a thing might happen. My own preference would be to see Vega act independently of romantic entanglements, because she has the potential to be a feminist hero, and we need one of those right now.

One way or another, this is a read you won’t want to miss. Highly recommended.

4.5 Stars

Welcome to the New Year of 2018!  For my first reading pick of the New Year I read Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna, an exciting crime thriller about young two girls who go missing from their car in a mall parking lot on the way to a birthday party.  After the girls go missing their mother enlists help from famous bounty hunter Alice Vega and disgraced ex-cop Max Caplan.  With the help of The Bastard, Vega's behind the scenes hacker assistant, they begin to slowly unravel the mystery of what really happened to the girls.  But will they find them in time?

This book is a page turning mystery that will keep you guessing from the edge of your seats until the very end.  It is kind of a police procedural, which I know many people do not like because it takes you through the investigation step by step as the investigators discover each piece of evidence, slowly peeling back the onion.  But Luna has accomplished this wonderfully, providing so many twists and turns along the way you will be begging for the next piece of evidence and next piece of the puzzle.  Luna will have you suspecting everyone you meet.

I really enjoyed this book and I really loved Cap, with his sweet relationship with his daughter, and Vega, a real badass.  They made a great investigative team that was fun to watch develop throughout the book.  I did not see the ending coming and found the resolution to be a more than a bit disturbing, but sadly I am sure it is not too far from off from what has happened to real girls who have disappeared.  I would highly recommend this book and am looking forward to more books from Luna in the future.

In fact, I kind of got the feeling that this may lead into a series?!?

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the advanced copy.

I almost did not request this book as an ARC. I am not usually a fan of mysteries or thrillers. But it's 2018 and I could stand to experience something new, so I took the chance on Louisa Luna's new novel and I was not disappointed. This ARC was provided by Doubleday Books via Netgally in return for an honest review. 

Two girls are taken from a Kmart parking lot and their mother is frantically looking for them. There seem to be no leads and the police are at a standstill, when the grandmother calls in a famous face. Alex Vega has found every person she has ever searched for (although the condition they are in when she finds them varies) and is now being paid to work either with or around the police in order to find the children. Vega enlists the help of a local, disgraced cop, Cap, who is also very skilled at solving cases and is now retired from police work because he took the fall for another cop.

Something remarkable about this book is how it bends your expectations, especially in regards to gender. Our famous, tireless investigator Vega is female, and Cap is a single dad who maintains an excellent relationship with his daughter Nell, who is no slouch in the intelligence department herself. The characters in this story are very interesting and you will worry about and care for them as the story moves forward. 

There is a very important reason I like to give all books with a relatively slow start until about 50% on the ol' Kindle; often something goes down by that point that picks up the pace and begins the race to the end. And a seemingly out of place murder starts our investigators on a trail that will end even more disturbingly than you might imagine. I was absolutely on the edge of my seat right until the end and it was just perfect. 

If you're a lover of mysteries and crime novels, you should definitely pick up Two Girls Down, out today at a bookstore near you!

This book has just about everything I want in a suspense novel. Great writing, strong characters, and a sense of freshness in the genre. It was compelling and hard to put down. Huge fan!

4.25-4.5 STARS

On a Saturday afternoon, in the small Pennsylvania town of Denville, 10 year-old Kylie Brandt and her 8 year-old sister Bailey, went missing from a strip mall. Already late for a birthday party, their mother, Jamie, ran into a store to purchase a gift, leaving the girls unattended in her car. When Jamie returned, she was met with her very worst nightmare—her girls were missing, and the town’s understaffed and overworked police force were left with nary a clue.

In a very unlikely pairing, ex-police officer-turned-PI, Max Caplan, teams up with a no-nonsense bounty hunter, Alice Vega, who has an established track record in locating missing children. Hired by the family to aid the authorities, Vega recruits Cap when she meets resistance from the local police. Together they work the case, but with much resistance and little help from the officials in charge.

The journey towards discovery is a long and twisty road, paved with many suspenseful moments along the way. The well-developed characters are multi-faceted and the overall story is intricately detailed and complex. Right from the get-go, the story pulled me in and held me in its grip, right through till the very end. And while certain aspects of the story dared to stretch the lines of believability, I was so engrossed that I happily suspended all of my conflicting, rational thoughts..

Throughout this book, there was an undercurrent running between Vega and Cap, eluding to a potential romantic connection. But much to my dismay, the story’s conclusion left this possibility unresolved and dangling in the wind. Nor did the author give us any real insight as to what their futures might hold—whether that be separate OR together. Hence, the unsatisfactory and disappointing ending is what led to my 4 star rating, as opposed to the 5 star rating it might otherwise have deserved.

Really excellent read, definitely kept me coming back and turning the pages. Well written, great story - kept you guessing, but moved swiftly as well - fabulous characters....was sad to see this one come to end. Looking very forward to reading more by this writer.

Imagine you just run into a store for no longer for five minutes to pick up a small, cheap gift for a birthday party you are taking your children. Your two children are sitting out in the car. Once you return, they are missing. You look around and ask stores if they have seen them. But, they are simply gone.
Jamie, the mother of Kylie and Bailey Brandt is in distress from her two daughters being kidnapped. Alice Vega, a PI is hired by the Brandt family to find Bailey and Kylie. Cap is a cop who was once police and is asked by Vega help find and solve the mystery of who took Bailey and Kylie.
There are different leads that take Cap and Vega on the run to figure out what is going on. Vega and Cap make a great team due to asking questions and looking at people that the police wouldn’t think of.
I really enjoyed Two Girls Down with the different perspectives and the clever minds of Cap and Vega. All the characters were well defined and fleshed out. The ending was not was expecting and something I did not see coming.
Release-January 9, 2018.
Thank you to Netgalley and Louisa Luna for the chance to read the ARC.
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Captivating book with twists that you didn’t seem coming. Bounty hunter Alice Vega and PI Max Caplan set out to find two missing girls who disappeared while her mother left them in the car while she ran inside a store real quick. The Mom is no saint but she definitely loves her girls and is sickened by their disappearance. One twist leads to another and this book holds your attention to find out just what happened to those 2 girls.

Good God this was one hell of a roller coaster ride! From the strong opening sentence all the way until the end this one had me glued to the pages as I wondered what happened to Bailey and Kylie Brandt?! Missing children stories always get to me, no idea why I’m so drawn to them because it’s such a nightmare thing to imagine happening to my own kids, yet they never fail to gain my attention and Two Girls Down was one of the most riveting missing persons stories that I’ve read in awhile.

Vega and Cap are not your usual duo in terms of people investigating a case which provides a unique point of view. She’s a sort of bounty hunter and he’s an ex cop turned PI who is mainly is hired to catch cheating spouses. They’re an unlikely partnership especially as they have never met each other before the Brandt case, but they are a force to be reckoned with and I’m really hoping that they’ll be a sequel. Vega is such a badass, I love reading about someone reckless, you have no idea what they’ll do next and that keeps things so exciting. Cap isn’t quite as unpredictable as Vega, he has a daughter to worry about so he walks the straight and narrow a bit more than she does but he has a certain type of charm that appealed to me.

I’m avoiding the plot because it went in so many dark places I didn’t see coming, I binge read this and think that’s the best way to tackle this one. It’s fast paced with a ton of red herrings and misdirections and the final resolution surprised me so much, I had never even considered the possibility and that’s rare for me. While the resolution of the case satisfied me I was a little underwhelmed by the actual ending, after such a strong book I had hoped for a bit more, but overall a really fantastic read, I would definitely read another book from Luna.

I absolutely could not put this book down. I picked it up and burned the midnight oil until I had read the last word. Well-constructed mystery. The characters were so well drawn. I would love to read more adventures with Vega and Cap. And, I adore Cap’s relationship with his daughter, Nell. The police were well drawn as well and multi dimensional. Highly recommended.