Skimmed through

NYPD Computer-crimes detective Connor Mitchel’s sister is missing. As he combs through his sister’s life, he realizes Monica might not have been this killer’s first target—or his last. In a twisted game of cat and mouse, Connor thinks he’s finally found the man responsible for his sister’s disappearance.

Unfortunately, he’ll first need to convince the shy, distrustful Evelyn Price she could be the next victim tangled in the murderer’s web if she doesn’t agree to help him catch the killer.

But just as Connor and Evelyn close in on their quarry, the killer has one last trick up his sleeve that could trap them all…

‘Girl Long Gone’ had an interesting blurb and it was this premise that drew me to it: a detective’s sister who’s gone missing, a bad guy who’s been named and shamed from the outset and a frenzied meeting with a heroine who finds herself accidentally tangled up in this web.

But there was something strange about the opening scene, which set the tone for a read that I couldn’t entirely get settled into. I thought the way Connor Mitchel met Evelyn Price was…odd, which made for a somewhat convoluted establishing scene, more so when Danielle Haas threw in some tenuous connections between Evelyn and the villain that felt superfluous. In fact, Evelyn felt, from the start, like an accessory to a story whose main players were Connor and Gabriel, rather than an indispensable half of the 2 protagonists Haas probably set out to write. As a result, the romance did feel somewhat stilted, even if the murder mystery shaped out to be a game of cat and mouse between Connor and Gabriel.

It’s probably my own disconnect that prevented me from getting into this book—I definitely wished I liked it more, but still somehow ended up giving up halfway.