“Last Girl Gone: A Laura Chambers Novel” by J.G. Hetherton
Published: June 12, 2018 Crooked Lane Books
Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Police Procedural
I just discovered J.G. Hetherton. He was raised in rural Wisconsin, attended college in Chicago where he lived for a decade before moving to North Carolina where he began writing his first novel “Last Girl Gone: A Laura Chambers Novel”.
In “Last Girl Gone: A Laura Chambers Novel” Laura is a disgraced investigative reporter who is fired from her job at the Boston Globe and forced to move back to the small town in North Carolina where she was raised and take a job with the local newspaper. When a missing girl shows up dead Laura sees this as her chance to rebuild her reputation even if it means hurting people close to her.
This is J.G. Hetherton’s first novel and it isn’t bad. It keeps you turning pages and there’s a pretty decent twist that I didn’t see coming. I think there are spots where the story drags. I don’t understand her relationship with her mother and why, as an adult, Laura puts up with being treated that way. Now since reading the second book I can see why a lot of that is in there, but it didn’t seem vital to this story.
I would rate this book a 3/5. It’s better than okay, but not the best book I’ve read. I would recommend it to anyone that likes a good investigation. I have a journalism background so I found the story intriguing. The sequel “What Lies Beneath” is better in my opinion. I will share my review of that one next week.
