Save Her Soul: An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller and mystery novel (Detective Josie Quinn, #9)

by Lisa Regan

Josie flinches as she takes in the faded blue sports jacket wrapped around the girl they just pulled from the water. Josie knew someone who’d once owned that jacket. He had died in her arms five years ago.

Heavy rain pours on the small town of Denton causing the riverbanks to break and the body of a young girl to float quietly to the surface. With no crime scene to examine, the odds are against Detective Josie Quinn and her team. Mercifully, the victim’s body is perfectly preserved, right down to the baseball patch on the jacket she was wearing. Josie can’t hide her devastation—her dead ex-husband, Ray, owned one just like it.

Following the trail back to her high school, Josie identifies the girl as Beverly Urban, a troubled student rumored to have been dating Ray before she left town for good. It looks like a tragic accident until the autopsy reveals a bullet in her head and the heart-breaking secret she was keeping.

Josie visits the salon where Beverly’s mother used to work, believing she was at the heart of a terrible scandal around the time her daughter’s life was taken. With the Denton wives remaining tight-lipped, Josie’s only hope is a secret meet-up with a terrified woman willing to talk. But she is murdered moments before giving Josie crucial information. It’s clear that someone is prepared to keep on killing to stop the truth from getting out.

Digging deep into memories of her own past with Ray is the only advantage Josie has on this twisted killer… but at what cost?

• ISBN10: 1838882324
• ISBN13: 9781838882327
• Publish Date: 12 August 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bookouture
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[zooloo1983]

By far this one is my favourite book in the series. I mean how can I not love a book which shows us an insight to Josie as a teenager. This is a hard case because it brings back a lot of memories for her. It also makes her doubt her past and I found that hard for Josie.

Denton is in trouble. It’s being flooded and a lot of the town is being submerged underwater. Josie and her team are on water rescue where Josie discovers a body floating in the water wrapped up in a tarp. The problem is the body is wearing Ray’s baseball jacket from High School dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn

With the town going underwater it just amplifies their isolation in the town. Not able to have access to all areas, with the town moving on since Beverly dying. The water cuts them off from everyone. It makes it more harrowing. It doesn’t help that this isolation adds to Josie and her demeanour. She is struggling with the events from the previous book, there’s a lot of anger and hurt. She is emotional and so when we learn about Ray, well it doesn’t bode well and she begins to question everything. She is put through the wringer and we are left asking,

Was Ray faithful to her? Or Ray ways starting in high school? Why was Beverley killed all those years ago?

There are so many questions but I couldn’t possibly list them all. I just know I had no idea how this would play out and we had a doozy of a red herring too. I completely flew through this book, it may be over 300 pages but it just felt it was only 5 pages. The ease of Lisa’s writing made you feel like you were in the investigation with the team. I felt like I was struggling in the water, tasting the dirty water, squelching through the town. Josie has to dig deep with this case, so emotions to face, I was feeling them with her. I didn’t want to believe that Ray had been up to something. He has such a presence in this book as if he was back and I felt Josie’s heartbreak all over again.

Gosh, I really don’t know what to say other than I loved it! It is a must-read in the series, we get an insight back to Josie and the forever shadow in her life and seeing her journey so far. Seeing things she goes through and how they apply to her now. Gah! Just read it! I need to talk about this book with someone!!!

This was the 100th book I read this year and it is one that is defo a contender for my book of the year.

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. This is the ninth book in the Josie Quinn series, but these can be read as standalones.

I love this series so much! Josie is a character that is just so easy to root for. She is kick-ass but she also has a softer side. We saw a lot more of that softer side in this book. It was really nice to see that the indestructible Josie is human after all. Josie really goes through the wringer in this one and I wanted to just give her the biggest hug. Her whole life seemed to be crumbling around her once again and I felt like she just needed one.

This story was full of twists and turns. Lisa does a great job of building up the tension and when you think you have it figured out she pulls the rug out from under you. I love the pace. The story had me hooked from the opening page and I really struggled to put it down.

Being back in the world of Josie Quinn is a place that really does make me happy. Well as happy as crime novel does! I love all the side characters and how much they have grown since the first book. I hope that there will be another book because I don't think I am quite done with these characters yet.