The Sleeping Girls

Detective Ellie Reeves, Book 9

By: Rita Herron

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

The young girl looked so innocent, like a sleeping angel. Kelsey lay on a bed of white sheets, golden hair fanned across the pillow, eyes closed, pale lips pressed together. A white teddy bear was tucked under her slender arm… “My baby, she’s dead” her distraught mother choked out.

When the call comes in that fifteen-year-old Kelsey Tiller has gone missing from her bedroom in the middle of the night, Detective Ellie Reeves rushes to talk to her distraught parents. They tell her that Kelsey, a slender blond with green eyes and a timid smile, had plans to go shopping for her homecoming dress the next day, insisting she would have no reason to run away. But when neighbors report seeing Kelsey with a secret boyfriend, Ellie wonders how much Kelsey really told her parents.

Ellie is determined to find Kelsey’s boyfriend and interviews her friends and teachers at school. But just as she is making headway with the case, she receives some devastating news. Kelsey’s parents have received a photo of their daughter lying on a bed with white sheets over her body, skin ghostly pale under the freckles dotting her nose, her precious life snuffed out.

Desperate to find answers for those who loved Kelsey, Ellie studies the picture and realizes that her body has been posed in the same way as a teenage girl murdered ten years earlier. And when she learns Darnell, the killer in that case, has just been released from prison, fear crawls through her. Could Darnell have stolen another innocent life?

But just as Ellie thinks she has cracked the case, Kelsey’s best friend Ruby is snatched from her home, and Darnell has an unbreakable alibi. Haunted by Kelsey’s ashen face, Ellie knows she must race against time to find Ruby alive. And when she discovers one of her team is hiding critical information, she realizes she needs to act alone. But is she dealing with a twisted copycat killer or is the danger far closer to home?

A totally gripping and pulse-pounding crime thriller that will have you holding your breath as you listen! Perfect for fans of Lisa Regan, Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh.

©2024 Rita Herron (P)2024 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Everything

I love all these book can’t wait for the next one!!! They are soooo good..

Can't get past obsessive Cord

Give me a Derrick Frost series without creepy Cord. Not the ending g I have been hoping for in 3 books. done

Rolled my eyes so many times they're sprained.

I seriously need to stop listening to this series. Alas, the book before this sucked me back in to the series because it wasn't horrible. Unfortunately this one is. I've got 2 and a half hours left to listen and I just don't know if I can do it. This author has no concept of true police procedure. ***Spoiler alert*** Ellie is alone searching a house without a warrant (which in and of itself is SO cringe) and while she's inside she hears a noise, draws her weapon, gets charged by a man.... and doesn't shoot him? Nope. She sure doesn't. In fact, there's no further mention of her weapon as the man proceeds to beat the snot out of her, lock her in a closet and set the house on fire. Oh, don't worry, Ellie is rescued - but when asked if she saw the guy she says that he came up behind her. Ok, so did he come up behind her or did he charge her head on like it was written? That's just one example of the utter ridiculousness that this book is rife with. Just when I thought the narration couldn't be worse... it got worse; disjointed and ridiculously dramatic.