Happy Publication Day to Helen Phifer on the book birthday for Find the Girl, the fifth book in the Detective Morgan Brookes series. I loved this book and recommend it to those who enjoy a good Crime/Police Procedural Story. You don’t have to read them all to enjoy this one, but this series is quite good, I do recommend it.

Find the Girl (Detective Morgan Brookes #5) by Helen Phifer

Published January 19th 2022 by Bookouture

About the Book:

The tent door flutters in the warm breeze, opening towards the silent woods beyond. A silk eye mask lies on top of the empty sleeping bag, blood-red spots ruining the cream fabric…

When a woman disappears from Forest Pines campsite, Detective Morgan Brookes scrambles a search party. Sara Fletcher has never missed a lunch date with her best friend and when Morgan finds a large rip in Sara’s tent, she knows that something terrible must have happened. About to lose hope after hours combing through the acres of dense forest, the excited bark of a tracker dog leads Morgan to female remains, partially covered by leaves and dirt – but the bones don’t belong to Sara.

Morgan trawls through missing persons files until she finds three cold cases with chilling similarities – three other victims dating back twenty years who were taken from campsites while they slept, by a killer the police called the Travelling Man. The post-mortems indicate he kept them alive for 72 hours, meaning every second is crucial to find Sara alive.

Morgan’s team is terrified that this twisted murderer has returned. But Morgan also can’t ignore the fact that a merciless killer from her own past has recently escaped from prison… Could they be chasing the wrong man? If she’s correct, how deep will she have to dig to save Sara and other innocent women like her before time runs out for them all?

A completely unputdownable, heart-in-your-mouth crime thriller. Fans of Angela Marsons, Lisa Regan and Rachel Abbott will be glued to the page!

5 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In this 5th book in the Detective Morgan Brookes series, we find Morgan, Ben, Amy and Des investigating a missing girl taken by a possible serial killer. Sara Fletcher disappears from her tent at the Forest Pines campsite. The back of her tent has been sliced open, there is blood in her tent and on her eye mast, and it looks like drag marks going from her tent into the forest. As a search dog is following her trail, he comes upon a skeleton found hidden under some branches and leaves. Was this a coincidence, an accident or were they led by there on purpose. Ben gets a call from a retired detective that says he has information for them and that this is not his first victim. He drives down with all his information and it appears they have a serial killer on their hands. Can they find Sara before he slashes her throat like the other victims?

This was a very intense story with a race against the clock. It appears the past victims were kept for 72 hours before being killed, so they need to work fast. With Amy doing her magic on the computer, Ben using his questioning and social skills and Morgan using her skills of deduction and reasoning, they search and get closer, but not close enough. Throw in the fact that Morgan’s biological father, Gary Marks, has escaped from prison and Morgan thinks she has seen him, there is suspicion that he could be the culprit. The characters, even the secondary ones, are well developed and there are several suspects. The pace is fast in this thrilling read that had several twists. As always, Morgan gets herself in sticky situations, and finds herself in a life or death fight. This is a great series and I think this is the best one yet. I definitely recommend this book and series to those who enjoy a good crime/mystery and police procedural. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating and opinions shared are my own.

Purchase Links: Amazon – Apple – Kobo – Google – Audible US – Audible UK

About the Author: Helen Phifer’s love of reading began with Enid Blyton, before progressing on to Laura Ingals Wilder and scaring herself with Steven King. If she can’t write for any particular reason she finds herself getting itchy fingers and really irritable. She loves reading as much as writing and is also very fond of chocolate, Prosecco, The Lake District, New York, white Zinfandel wine, her children and grandchildren, her friends, porn star martini cocktails, Stephen King, watching scary films, Marilyn Monroe, Melissa McCarthy, Idris Elba, Simon Baker, Spandau Ballet, The Munsters and coffee. In no particular order.

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