In this latest instalment in Lisa Regan’s Detective-Josie-Quinn series, Josie is called to the body of a young woman. She soon starts to discover links to past crimes, a wealthy family in a small town not far from her native Denton and even to Anya Feist, the local pathologist with whom Josie had already formed a fledgling friendship.

As in most of Regan’s books in this series, one of the team plays a big part in the mystery and in this novel it’s the afore-mentioned pathologist who has a complicated past…

Also in line with most of these police procedurals, the plot is very engaging: I found myself reading at pretty much every opportunity and it was with a heavy heart that I had to return to my other responsibilities. At many times, this book was a total page turner, exciting, thrilling and suspenseful.

Whereas in a few previous novels in this series, there were problems with pacing or keeping things interesting, this was never the case in this one. After the unnecessarily brutal prologue, this book captured my interest and never let go.

Beyond the interesting mystery and its satisfying conclusion, the new insights into Anya were well done and the developments between Josie and Noah were… promising!
Also along on the ride - albeit in very minor capacities - are Trinity, Josie’s twin sister, and her husband, Drake.

There is also one very unfortunate event, but it does not detract from the book in any way.

»No regrets.«

All in all, this was a very entertaining and highly welcome return to Josie Quinn. If you enjoyed previous novels in this series, you’ll feel right at home in this one and if you didn’t, this might be a good second attempt!

Five out of five stars!

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam ( )

Close Her Eyes by Lisa Regan
Josie Quinn #17

Dark, grim, complex murder mystery that grabbed me on page one and didn’t let me go till the very end.

What I liked:
* Josie: homicide detective, married, had a difficult childhood discussed in previous books, happily married to Noah, competent, professional, good at her job, someone I would like to call friend
* Noah: police lieutenant working with Josie and also her husband, loving, kind, supportive, bright, protective, patient, perfect for Josie
* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing
* That it make me think, drew me in, and made me care
* The police procedural aspects of the story and how Josie’s team worked with the team from Bly
* The complexity of this mystery with all the threads that were found, followed, and how they were all tied up in the end
* Getting to see the supporting characters and finding out how they are doing
* The psychological elements and their impact on more than one
* Knowing that there will be another book in the series
* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Thinking about all of the mental and physical pain and suffering that more than one experienced
* Thinking about how evil some people are

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars ( )

This is the 17th Detective Josie Quinn mystery. I have read more than half of them; it is one of my favorite series. Typically, I stay up late to finish each one because I can’t put them down!

In this case, a dead body is found in a nearby stream. When the MO has ties to someone in Josie’s orbit, the plot thickens. While Josie, her husband, Noah, and the team investigate, it seems this murder may be related to a cold case being researched by Josie’s twin sister, Tiffany, an investigative journalist. When a second body shows up, the mystery deepens. Danger awaits the team as the book reaches a stunning conclusion.

I always enjoy revisiting the repeating characters in Josie’s life. She has an interesting backstory and the author @LisaRegan always does a good job filling in that information so that these books do work as standalones. I do suggest, however, going back and reading some of the prior in the series. Despite having had many travails in her life, Josie is a strong, capable, likable female protagonist.

If you like well written police procedurals/thrillers, and are not familiar with this series, I would recommend it. I can’t wait for the next one!

Thanks to #netgalley and #bookouture for the ARC ( )