Description
He looked down at the little girl, sleeping peacefully, her arms wrapped around a teddy bear. He knew he was the only one who could save her. He could let her sleep forever.
An eight-year-old girl, Chelsea Compton, is missing in Pine Valley, California and for Detective Katie Scott it’s a cruel reminder of the friend who disappeared from summer camp twenty years ago. Unable to shake the memories, Katie vows she won’t rest until she discovers what happened to Chelsea.
But as Katie starts to investigate, the case reveals itself to be much bigger and more shocking than she feared. Hidden deep in the forest she unearths a makeshift cemetery: a row of graves, each with a brightly coloured teddy bear.
Katie links the graves to a stack of missing-persons cases involving young girls—finding a pattern no one else has managed to see. Someone in Pine Valley has been taking the town’s daughters for years, and Katie is the only one who can stop them.
And then another little girl goes missing, snatched from the park near her home.
Katie’s still haunted by the friend she failed to protect, and she’ll do anything to stop the killer striking again—but can she find the little girl before it’s too late?
Review
Little Girls Sleeping by Jennifer Chase was an amazing book that I couldn't put down. On her website Ms. Chase describes the main character, Detective Katie Scott as "the feisty, ex-Army K9 handler." which I think fits Detective Katie well.
Katie Scott returns from her second tour of Afghanistan where she worked in the K9 unit of the Army. Her parents have passed and she goes home to Uncle who is the Sheriff. She's not totally sure what she wants to do, if she wants to rejoin the police force or not. But her Uncle some how pulls some strings and is able to reunite Katie with her partner from Afghanistan, her dog Cisco. He also asks her to help with data entry at the station.
Little Girls Sleeping kept me wanting more. I thought I had the killer all figured out and boy was I wrong.
"I guess I've always handled problems I can't solve by going back to the beginning"
Detective Katie Scott
Here is my one word of advice when reading this book, when you feel like the information you are being given is not relevant or important, it is and remember it. A few times I said to myself "what does this have to do with anything", oh it has a lot to do with everything. I think it takes a skilled writer to be able to do that and keep you engaged in the book (when most would give up) and then is still able to surprise you with the ending.
I'm not sure if this is going to turn into a series but I hope Detective Katie Scott get's a couple more stories. She was so relatable as a character and I also really liked that it focused on her, this wasn't a female detective who solved the case and fell in love. Yes, there is some hint of possible romance but this book really focused on Katie, Cisco, the case and Katie trying to figure out what she wants to do and how she's going to fit back into her community.
Little Girls Sleeping earns 4/5 ★★★★☆ stars from me
Little Girls Sleeping is available Friday May 31, 2019
Thank you to Jennifer Chase, Bookouture and Netgalley for the advanced copy of Little Girls Sleeping for my kindle.
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