Two Girls Down

California bounty hunter Alice Vega, who has a reputation for finding missing children, teams with disgraced detective-turned-private investigator Max Caplan to find two vanished girls, sisters Kylie and Bailey Brandt, who were abducted from a mall parking lot in a small rundown Pennsylvania town. With few witnesses and even fewer consistent stories, and little help from a local police force overwhelmed by budget cuts and a growing narcotics epidemic, Vega and Caplan track down every bit of evidence and interview many suspects in their determination to locate the girls. The slow pacing is deliberate, adding to the growing suspense, as the story line ultimately builds to a surprising conclusion. The omniscient third-person narrative allows a look into the main protagonists' thoughts and feelings, but readers should pay attention to the many supporting and minor characters as well, as the roles they play add to the intensity.