NEW RELEASE: 5 Stars and 4.5 Stars for Lost & Forsaken: Missing Persons #1 by Adrian J. Smith @AdrianAJSmith #FF #Crime #Mystery @SupposedCrimes

Title: Lost & Forsaken (Missing Persons #1)
Author Name & Publisher: Adrian J. Smith (Supposed Crimes)
Publication Date & Length: June 1, 2016 – 242 Pages

Detective Grace Halling has a nice ring to it, or so Grace thought until she receives her first case.

Grace has been visiting Harold Crighton for years, and when he suddenly goes missing from the Campbell Home with seemingly no trace, her world is thrown into a spin. From finding her feet as a detective to learning how to be a better girlfriend to Amya and trying to find her place in a new and different world of no longer being a beat cop, Grace plows ahead and grits her teeth.

Although not the lead detective on Harold’s case, Grace is determined to put as much effort into finding him as possible. That is until she’s saddled with her own case and her focus becomes divided.

I have read all of the Officer Grace books by Adrian J Smith and loved them.  I could not have asked for a better start to Grace’s career as a detective as this novel is  brilliantly plotted, bringing old friends back  and seeing Grace deal with a lot of baggage.  She is still getting over having to shoot cop killer, Cynthia, the death of her friends Daniel and Carol, and her new commitment to a life with Amya.  When her friend Harold goes missing from his care home she finds herself having to deal with her own feelings, her guilt and sickening homophobia at work.  I loved seeing Grace grow as a person in that she had to finally deal with her problems and find a way to give some meaning to her life by helping others.  With Amya’s help she became more open and their relationship became stronger.  I so want it to work out for them and felt that they were beginning to really make progress.  I just hope Paige isn’t going to be a problem! At work her first two cases were gripping and kept me reading well into the night.  The writing was so engrossing with not a wasted word in the whole book.  This is the best by far of all of the Grace books and I feel that the characters have become fully rounded and are perfectly melded into an ensemble that really works.  A well deserved 5 Stars – I can’t wait for the next one!

Kitty Kat

This book was a wonderfully engaging read. It really kept me turning pages. I was extremely interested in the relationship between Grace and Amya, because they seem to have so many issues that they’re working out or around. One of those issues is the resolution last year of the case of a serial killer who was killing cops. Grace survived an attack that killed many of her colleagues and friends, and ended up killing the attacker, but it has left her with emotional scars. It seems as though Grace is dealing with emotional scars from even before this incident, and it makes me want to know more about her. Those problems weren’t really plumbed in this book, so it left me wondering if they’re discussed more in the previous series. Amya intrigues me with her compassion, empathy, and understanding of Grace. The actual cases that we see Grace dealing with draw you in and make you care about these people who have gone missing from their own lives, and I definitely rooted for Grace to have a happy resolution. I’m interested to see how things develop with Paige in the next book, and how Amya deals with how that relationship makes her feel. By the end of the book, I want to go back and read everything I can about Grace and Amya, and how they got to where they are now. And I’m also looking forward to reading more about their journey together.

AmyP

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Adrian J. Smith, or “AJ” as she is often called, is a part-time writer with an epic imagination, sharp wit, and kind heart that gets her into a bit of trouble when it comes to taking in all the neighborhood stray cats. Being obsessed with science fiction, Smith often goes off on tangents about the space-time continuum. She is also a part-time lunatic with a secretive past. It’s been rumored that she was once a spy for the government, but anyone who has gotten close enough to know the truth has never lived to tell the tale. When traveling around the world on various classified tasks, Smith requires the following be provided: buffalo jerky, mimosas, and eighty-six pennies. This is all we know about the reclusive woman.

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