R.H. Herron | STOLEN THINGS

Plot (via Goodreads):

“Mama? Help me.”

Laurie Ahmadi has worked as a 911 police dispatcher in her quiet Northern California town for nearly two decades. She considers the department her family; her husband, Omid, is its first Arab American chief, and their teenaged daughter, Jojo, has grown up with the force. So when Laurie catches a 911 call and, to her horror, it’s Jojo, the whole department springs into action.

Jojo, drugged, disoriented, and in pain, doesn’t remember how she ended up at the home of Kevin Leeds, a pro football player famous for his on-the-field activism and his work with the CapB—“Citizens Against Police Brutality”—movement. She doesn’t know what happened to Kevin’s friend and trainer, whose beaten corpse is also discovered in the house. And she has no idea where her best friend Harper, who was with her earlier in the evening, could be.

But when Jojo begins to dive into Harper’s social media to look for clues to her whereabouts, Jojo uncovers a shocking secret that turns everything she knew about Harper—and the police department—on its head. With everything they thought they could rely on in question, Laurie and Jojo begin to realize that they can’t trust anyone to find Harper except themselves . . . and time is running out.

Review:

Stolen Things is one hell of a thriller that gave me vibes of SVU and a good Lifetime movie. From the very harrowing beginning, I knew I was in for a wild and entertaining ride. One thing that I had read with previous reviews was that other readers felt that Laurie kind of took a vigilante role in this novel and it was too unrealistic. Well, I can only imagine a ton of other women who know the system like Laurie does would act the same way and would do whatever they could to bring justice for their daughter. While I agree, at times it was a little predictable and unrealistic, it was warranted and entertaining. I’d much rather read Laurie’s journey than a mother at home twiddling their thumbs. She was kick-ass and determined to not only seek justice for Jojo, but to take down whoever is responsible for hurting her.

I found the plot to this one to be wonderfully paced - Herron has this knack for weaving in and out of a fast-paced thriller and the emotionally-charged aspects between Laurie and Jojo and their relationship. What Jojo is dealing with throughout this story is disheartening and brutally terrifying. The combination of the non-stop thriller aspect combined with the emotional aspect really solidified this as such an addictive read and no matter how much I tried to take a break I couldn’t put it down and devoured it in one sitting. Everything about this story just went together beautifully and I literally at times had no idea what was going on or what was about to happen and found myself in panic at times and enthralled in its entirety.

Now, the ending to this one was something I had wondered about and at times had my reservations, but before I knew it, I was grasping the final pages and down the rabbit hole. On the surface, I was a tad disappointed with one reveal but found myself loving the twists and turns when I got the full picture. I think for her first thriller, this was a brilliant tale and I cannot wait to read the next title in this genre from this tremendously talented woman.

Special thanks to Dutton for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4/5