Source: DRC via NetGalley (Doubleday Books, Doubleday)
*Note: This was an unsolicited DRC offer and it was an amazing surprise! Thank you Doubleday!
Pub. Date: March 8, 2022
Synopsis: Goodreads
Previous novels in the series: Two Girls Down, The Janes

Why did I choose to read this book?

I logged into my gmail one day in late February to find this lovely book sitting in my inbox. I did not request it but I was so glad to have early access! I will shout the praises of Louisa Luna to anyone who will listen, and have even bought copies of Two Girls Down and The Janes for friends and family. Honestly it was less about choosing to read this book as it was rushing to read it asap once it was on my Kindle!

What is notable about the story?

There is something about the Alex Vega stories that will hook smart girls down on their luck. The character Alex Vega is a bloodhound that trips over doing what’s right in the process of doing what she’s been paid to do. Those two objectives become so interwoven that you forget what we were doing and you just want Vega to beat the absolute shit out of someone to exact delicious vengeance on behalf of the innocent. In Two Girls Down it was kidnapping, in The Janes it was child trafficking, and in Hideout Vega is in search of a missing football star and stumbles on a nest of white supremacist violence in small town Oregon. As she writes book after book, Luna is commenting not only on the evils festering in American society but probably also about the ways we may have to act in order to burn them away.

Luna has the amazing gift of wrapping you up in the story so you feel as though you are seeing the story through Vega’s eyes. Her books are the most vivid virtual reality; once I looked up and saw I had been reading for an hour without realizing it. There is a sequence towards the end where I was almost panting with anticipation, the revenge so sweet I swear I could taste it. And what makes everything work is that Luna makes us earn the revenge, she gives the action time to settle before we set out with a gun and a glint in our eye.

Was anything not so great?

I want to preface this with the fact that I get it. Max Caplan and Alex Vega got VERY HOT in The Janes, and the nature of both of their characters would be to shy away from each other as though they had been shocked by electricity. Both Caplan and Vega have to think about what they mean to each other, what their work together means for them professionally, and how their entanglement might create unforseen consequences inflicted on the people they love separately (notably Nell, Caplan’s daughter at the end of The Janes).

I understand what she was doing here, and thematically it makes sense so I’m willing to see how it pays off in the next book, but I was still upset about Max essentially being a paranoid dad on the sidelines, just looking for another “thrill of the hunt” bump while trying to be a protective dad, and just being miserable in general. He’s such a good person and he and Vega are so good together, that I really missed having them be together in Hideout. Absence makes the heart grow fonder though, and Luna’s ability to make us earn our moments will undoubtedly pay off for us as readers on this front, so again this is a small quibble because I know the wait will be worth it.

What’s the verdict?

5 stars to Luna on Goodreads, and if you want to see some sweet justice brought down on the heads of white supremacists both old and young (especially since there isn’t a lot of that happening in the real world) go get this absolute gobsmacker of a mystery/thriller. And if you haven’t read them yet, get Two Girls Down and The Janes too, and read them in order to get the heft of the Vega/Caplan development. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Published by Doubleday on March 8, 2022

The third Alice Vega novel cements the protagonist as a driven action hero who is unhindered by any internal restraint on her violent tendencies. Vega is interesting in part because she is a borderline sociopath, in part because she is likely somewhere “on the spectrum” (Vega has little use for social interaction), and in part because she recognizes those tendencies and gives some thought to whether they serve her well.

Anton Fohl hires Vega to find Zeb “Wrong Way” Williams, a kicker who played football for Cal. Instead of kicking a winning field goal in a rivalry game, Williams famously pushed the holder out of the way, grabbed the ball, and ran the wrong way, through the wrong end zone and out of the stadium, never to be seen (verifiably) again. That was in 1984. Fohl’s wife Carmen is an heiress who used to date Williams. She was hurt when he disappeared. For reasons of his own, Fohl wants Vega to locate Williams. Finding missing persons is her thing. She’s rather single-minded in her pursuit.

Years earlier, another private detective traced William to a small town in Oregon, where his photograph was taken with some other people. Vega begins her search in the Oregon town. Her key witness is a waitress who knew and had an argument with Williams before he disappeared from the town. Many of the people Vega interviews seem evasive, making it clear that at least one powerful person in the town is keeping a secret.

Vega’s investigation is sidetracked by her encounters with white supremacists who think she should mind her own business and leave their town alone. Using a white supremacy network, they make trouble for Vega’s father and her friend (and occasional lover and business partner) Max Caplan. The trouble impairs her relationship with Caplan, an event that deeply disturbs Caplan while causing Vega to make a decision she regrets.

For a chunk of the novel, the white supremacy subplot overshadows the missing person story. The aftermath of the trouble that the supremacists make with Caplan and Vega’s father highlight Vega’s difficulty expressing herself to the people she loves (or relating to them on any emotional level). She expresses herself more eloquently by breaking kneecaps and doing other nasty things to the white supremacists.

After Vega clears away obstacles, she gets the search back on track, figures out the town’s hidden secrets, and finds an answer to the mystery she was asked to solve. The plot’s resolution is both surprising and satisfying.

Like the earlier Vega novels, Hideout moves at a good pace, balancing credible action scenes with relentless detection. Vega doesn’t have time for small talk or rest breaks. Those personality quirks keep the plot in constant motion. Readers won’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about Vega, but it is easy to sympathize with her as she struggles to move forward without pushing away the people she cares about. Readers might have warm (if not fuzzy) feelings for Caplan, simply because he’s a decent man who loves his daughter and is tormented by his love for Vega. Characterization combines with a smart action/detective plot to make Hideout a good choice for crime novel fans who enjoy reading about tough, intelligent female protagonists.

RECOMMENDED

'HIDEOUT, Louisa Luna's third book in the Alice Vega series, takes Vega to a small town in southern Oregon. She is investigating the disappearance of a California college football star who threw a game, ran off the field, and was never seen again. It's been 30 years and his girlfriend from the time is very rich and very curious. Vega asks her sometimes partner Cap to join her but he refuses. He's busy in Pennsylvania obsessing about what his 18-year-old daughter Nell may or may not be doing. So Vega goes on her own. And what she finds in rural southern Oregon is not what she expects. She finds hostile reactions to her questions about the football player, who lived in Ilona for a few months and even had a girlfriend. The worse of her problems come from a group of young white supreme- cists., Things get ugly fast. Luna does her usual excellent job of further developing her three main characters and throwing the reader plenty of surprises. Vega encounters a great deal of pain and hardship in this story, but she is no quitter. The ending is a complete surprise! #Hideout Thanks to #NetGally for a preview copy of the book

I was excited to read this third book in the series about Alice Vega. I always love returning to characters I know and love and seeing how they’ve changed and what’s going on with them now.

Unfortunately Hideout didn’t really work for me - I finished because I wanted to see what would happen with the key relationships in the story and know what happened for the next book. Otherwise this probably would have been a DNF for me.

There were some really interesting parts of the plot but there was also a fair amount of meandering and some pretty big stretches of disbelief. I’ll still be here for the next Alice Vega book though! Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Alice Vega, still kicking butt and taking names.

Hideout is the third book in Louisa Luna's gritty Crime Thriller series, Alice Vega, featuring the badass people-finder of the same name. In my opinion, the books in this series do not necessarily need to be read in order. In fact, I would argue they can also be read as standalones, however, you will be missing out on the gorgeous build-up of the relationship between Alice and her partner-from-afar, disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. So, while they can be read any way you like, I would highly recommend starting at the beginning and proceeding from there. They're all really good, so you should have a fantastic time catching up, at any rate.

After the conclusion of The Janes, which was set on the West Coast of the U.S., Max returns home to the East Coast, battered and bruised. That was an extremely dangerous case for him and Vega both. The two of them begin to settle back into their regular lives, Alice working missing persons cases and Max, most importantly fathering his daughter Nell, as well as performing his private investigative work.

Vega gets bored easy though, so when she is propositioned with an unusual case, finding a missing college football player last seen 30-years ago, she jumps on it. Normally, Vega's cases are very current and she's battling a ticking clock, so this one is quite unusual. She begins her search where the man in question, Zeb Williams, was last seen. A small town in Oregon called Ilona.

As she begins to get to know some of the locals, Vega starts to understand this town may not be as sweet and pristine as it first appears. There's a lot of dirty secrets and vicious inclinations hiding just under the surface; including an active branch of a white supremacist group.

Vega knows people are not being honest with her. She believes someone, maybe multiple someones, know what happened to Zeb. Additionally, she has a feeling the most powerful players in town may be involved. Naturally, she calls Cap to bounce some ideas off of him. Well, really she wants his help, but Cap isn't ready. He has a lot going on in his own life, particularly struggling with the fact that his baby girl is almost a grown-up. He can't drop everything and risk his life again just because Vega called.

I was really anticipating this release and while I enjoyed it, I didn't vibe with this one quite as much as I did with the earlier books. If you have read this, you may be able to predict what I am going to say, but for me, part of the magic of this series is the partnership between Alice and Max. Their personalities, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, compliment each other very well. It's a solid investigative duo.

In this book, the vast majority of their interactions are long distance. This one is much more, Alice living her life on the West Coast and Max, living his life on the East. Max is helping her only in minor ways. The case turns out to be extremely dangerous, and Alice, seemingly uncaring to risks, puts herself in incredibly nerve-wrenching circumstances. This woman seriously has a gut of steel. She's not afraid of anything.

I do love Alice as a character for that very reason. She is extremely confident, but it's because she works hard at it. She trains herself in body and mind and she knows she is prepared for anything. She knows she can perform even with her life on the line.

I also love Max. He has so many incredible qualities. I actually did really enjoy reading about his relationship with his daughter, Nell, in this one. She is a lot like him, which I think makes him really nervous!

My one hope is that in the next book of the series, which I am assuming there will be more, Max and Alice actually physically work the case together. I feel like I am well and fully attached to these characters now. I definitely want to read more in this series.

This one is really interesting. It's a lot, but it's intriguing. I did like the backdrop of having the college football element. As a huge football fan, that was really fun. Something I don't think I have ever read before in an Adult Mystery/Thriller.

Thank you to the publisher, Doubleday Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I really appreciate it and will be keeping my fingers crossed that we get more of Vega and Cap!!!

DNF not engaged in the beginning. Not feeling any heat from Cap and Vega. Don't think this would be a good stand alone. Perhaps the background enhances the story. I loved the second book, but this seemingly regresses in energy.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

I've been waiting for a new Alice Vega book and Luna didn't disappoint!!! As always, she leaves the best of the story until the last few pages, but also always has another story woven in with the main story.

Book three in a series, and probably my least favorite. I enjoyed reuniting with the characters I’ve become invested in. The case was perplexing and I enjoyed the race aspect. However, the plot derailed a bit. It came together in the end but left me feeling underwhelmed. It won’t stop me from reading the next in the series though! 3⭐️

Alice Vega is part Lisbeth Salander, part Jack Reacher in this, the third in the series that bears her name.

Thirty years ago, Zeb Williams is a football player, and during the infamous Cal-Stanford game, takes the balls, runs off the field, and vanishes. Over the years, his disappearance has become the stuff of legends, replete with Bigfoot-like sightings. in the present day, Alice is asked to find him. For what purpose, she does not know. After initially declining, she eventually agrees to take it on, and starts out to determine where he is and what happened to him.

I'm a fan of cold cases, and I appreciated the way Alice started very methodically working through and puzzling out the details - and occasional red herrings - of Zeb's disappearance. She lands in the tiny southern Oregon town of Ilona, a place that has seemingly become awash in traitorous white supremacists called the Liberty Boys (a not terribly subtle reference to the Proud Boys, a very real group).

As she digs, the stakes grow ever higher, and her partner Max Caplan is not and cannot be a greater presence in the case, dealing as he is with his own issues. This doesn't deter Alice, and even after getting beaten up and told to leave town, she doggedly continues her quest to find the missing Zeb.

This is the first book in the series that I've read, and I didn't feel I was missing anything crucial by not having read the first two. There's obviously some kind of (broken) relationship between Alice and Max, and I suppose if I had read those earlier books, or if Max was involved more in this story, I would have more than a vague idea about that; however, the lack off true backstory on that didn't bother me in the least.

The story is told with a good balance of physicality and cerebral pursuits in tracking down the missing man. Alice is also not a character who gets beaten up and then is ready to go fight more after just shaking it off. There's a reality of her being a mere mortal that I appreciate,

Four and a half stars, rounded to five. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the reading copy.

I discovered Louisa Luna at the beginning of Covid lockdown. Her books set me on a reading marathon of mysteries that kept me sane during the craziness. This third installment of the Alex Vega series was like catching up with old friends. I love Vega’s detective methods and detachment alongside Cap and his old school cop charm. Hope a fourth one is already in the works!! Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I've read and enjoyed the Alice Vega series. The author has real knack of writing compelling thrillers that suck you into the book.

Alice Vega, a private investigator is recently hired to find an ex-football hero, Zeb WIlliama who has been missing since 1984.
This time Alice is on the move, solving the case and connecting the dots minus her partner, Max "Cap" Caplan who due to family matters cannot join her.
Alice’s only lead is a photo of him taking in the small town of Ilona in Oregon not long after his disappearance. While she’s making enquiries of people who knew him then, she comes across a group of local young white nationalists who are hell-bent on making life difficult for those who don’t agree with them. Her decision to take them on, not only distracts her from her original mission but causes trouble for her family and friends.

This is a compelling thriller which a good plot and pacing. My only tiny complaint was the missing 'Cap'. I enjoyed the two together in the previous books and missed him here. Hopefully, he will be back in the next book in the series.
This was a solid 3.5 stars for which I am bumping up to 4.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you're in the mood for a gritty private investigator mystery/crime fiction read, give the Alice Vega novels a try. Hideout is the third book featuring Vega but can be read as a standalone. This time Alice is working a missing person cold case which ends up overlapping a case involving white nationalists.

I was pulled right into the story from the beginning. The tension plus the need to find out what happened 30 years ago, kept me turning pages. Alice Vega is relentless at finding the truth despite danger to herself. She's smart and can't be a bit too fearless. The author does a good job portraying the characters, including secondary ones. Hope there will be more Alice Vega novels in the future. Thank you to the publisher for my e copy of this book.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58343058-hideout" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Hideout (Alice Vega #3)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624027964l/58343058._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58343058-hideout">Hideout</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26872.Louisa_Luna">Louisa Luna</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4598948845">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Alice Vega is hired to locate a missing football player who went missing years ago. Right off the bat trouble starts with a local political group. Alice is able to infilterate to get info on who hired the thugs. I wasn't sure if I would like this book at first but I am really glad I read it. It was thrilling, moved fast, and well thought out. I would like to read more by this author.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5483119-sherry">View all my reviews</a>

I don't know what happened to this series, but I couldn't get more than 30 percent through this book. Alice Vega and Cap are as lost as this Zeb character that went missing 20 years ago.

Alice stands on her head a bit and makes some fun investigative deductions. Cap worries for Nell. It's not the same, though.

Also, animal cruelty is a trigger for me. I just can't read it. After the second scene of animal cruelty, I was unable and unwilling to finish.

While I have really enjoyed the other books in this series, this one didn’t feel like it belonged. The entire story seemed like it was trying to find itself. The characters were going through changes and the direction they will eventually take is uncertain. I don’t know if I liked Vega or Cap in this one. I liked Nell a little. The story also meandered around trying to find itself.

For reasons not fully explained, or at least forgotten by the end of the book, Alice Vega is hired to find an infamous college football player 30 years after he's disappeared, having ended a rivalry game by literally giving away the game. Alice sets out to retrace his steps, and who knows what she'll find behind the mystery, gamblers? blackmailers? In her quest, she visits a small town, gets caught up in its rivalries and follows a lead not at all connected with her missing persons case. There's a relationship with her old friend (partner?) Cap, who is raising his daughter as she strives for her independence. Confusing? yes. Satisfying? not really. The subplot wraps up and then the denoument to the missing persons case is presented as an afterthought, and not a believable one at that.
I've enjoyed books by this author, but not this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This my first Louisa Luna, I still need to read Two Girls Down. I know I know, I’m behind on many. Anywho, this is third in a series featuring Alice Vega is about a 30 year old cold case of a football player that’s gone missing. The footballer Zeb Williams went missing during a game and has become a mystery that all are wondering what happened, and has made him a well known legend. So as Vega does, she digs into his past and follows the trails, but the deep she digs the more disturbing the answers.

I really enjoyed the way Luna writes her characters. We get an exploration onto Vegas life and her other half of solving the case. The tension rises and gave me a “I didn’t see that coming.” Now I definitely need to read the other two books because I like when authors write almost relatable main characters that carry out through many books .

This story is an excellent addition to the Alice Vega series, with a taut and tense story and ever present sense of danger. I felt like this one did a lot to advance Vega as a character, giving us a lot of insight into her internal life as she takes on a town mostly on her own. Alice has been a memorable character from the start, and while I still enjoyed the sections with Cap and his daughter, this story really let Vega take the lead and show everything she's made of.

I enjoyed this book! I was first enamored with Vega and Cap when I read Two Girls Down several years ago. This is the third installment in the series and I would recommend reading the series in order if at all possible. I must admit that while I did like this book a lot, it was my least favorite book in the series so far. One of the things that I love about the series is the dynamic between Vega and Cap and they just spent too much time apart in this book. It was still a very solid story that I found very entertaining.

Vega takes on a cold case looking for a missing college football player who ran out of the stadium during a crazy play never to be seen again. The case takes her to a small town and it doesn’t take long for Vega to be knee-deep in the corruption and white supremacy that plague the town. Vega was on her own for much of the book, although we do get to see what is going on in Cap’s life. It was really a shame that they were not working this case together as they did in the first two books because they work so well as a team and balance each other out well. Vega can be a bit reckless in the risks she takes but it sure makes for an exciting story.

This book was filled with excitement. Vega was really dealing with two cases since she did want to find the football player but couldn’t leave the white supremacy alone. There were times when I thought that the small town of Ilona was going to be too much for her. Vega and Cap do spend some time together in the book and I think that there was some real progress in their relationship so I am hopeful they will be back to being a team in the future.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought that it was an exciting read filled with a lot of action and a mystery that kept me guessing. I cannot wait to read more of Louisa Luna’s writing!

I received a digital review copy of this book from Doubleday Books via NetGalley.

I was not happy that this was book 3 in a series. Do you need book 1 and 2 ? sort of yes, but I didn't have the option. I did however, enjoy this book. Here is why and why not. Alice starts out as a PI with a case that makes her seem sloppy. This part made me like her. The basis of her case is to find Zeb, a former football star who literally ran off the field away from a hopeful career path. I was SO confused as to why Fohl wanted to find him. It literally made NO sense at all. He was the boyfriend of his wife. She always wanted to know where he was and if he was alive. I was reading it saying why? over and over. Before this is published GO and fix that. It is the only way to improve the book.

Anyway, moving on, Alice is mediocre in the first half. She finds out very little, wasting time, getting hurt and blowing money. Then she walks away when the entire White Supremacy part of the story heats up. This is where everything was SO disjointed. They have an agenda in the middle of nowhere. It would seem that the operation wouldnt be in some small mountain town where they have a limited reach; They can only get their supreme knowledge to a few people, so why have headquarters there?

I did like Cap. I also like the Alice that appeared to take over in part two of the book. The secondary characters that appear made the book what it was, for me they gave it the character it needed.