Last Girl Gone is the first Laura Chambers Mystery by J.G. Hetherton. I was attracted to this book as it was suggested that it would be a good read for fans of Julia Keller. I love Julia Keller's books and I found Last Girl Gone to be a great read. I am looking forward to more in the series!

Last Girl Gone is a wonderfully twisty tale. It is set in North Carolina. Reporter Laura Chambers is back in her hometown living with her mother...that is a story in itself. 30 years earlier, children were disappearing. And now they are again. Could this all possibly be connected? Laura works with a retired lawman to figure out what is going on now..and what happened 30 years ago.

This is a great twisty thriller. A definitely must read for thriller fans.

Highly recommend Last Girl Gone.

YES.... I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I love reading murder mystery thrillers and this one did not let me down. Having gone back to her hometown of Hillsborough, North Carolina, journalist Laura Chambers takes (not much choice having been fired from her position with Boston Global!) a job in the small time local newspaper. When two young girls go missing and one turns up dead, Laura wants to write the article but at what cost.... even putting her own life in danger more than once! After discovering a link between these missing girls and girls that disappeared years earlier, she will not give up until she gets to the truth..... loved the major twist, didn't see that coming at all, very well written, would definitely read more of the Laura Chambers series (if that's in the pipeline!!!)

Many thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

A little confusing in the beginning and ends with a bang. The similarities between the main character Laura an investigative reporter and the girl in the prologue are startling enough to make you unsure of who is who. Both also have extremely abusive mothers who could be twins. Laura is returning from Boston where she had a great job which she lost because of running afoul of the Archdiocese. This is one of my pet peeves that the Catholic Church always get mentioned in negative contest. There are other things in Boston that could ruin your career but every time authors choose the sex scandal. Think of something new instead of repeating the same old news. Especially since this has absolutely nothing to do with the book or any of the missing children. Laura is not a very likable person but uses people to get what she wants. She manages to get a boyfriend gruesomely killed but in the end triumphs. Never for a moment thought it would end the way it did. Great book and congratulations to the author. I will gladly recommend this book to anyone and give it a rating of 4 stars. Thanks to #NetGalley #CrookedLaneBooks for letting me read this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

This excellent new series starts with a bang. A discredited journalist searching for the big story that will put her back in the limelight struggles with the dilemma of whether to follow the story or investigate the crime and maybe save the latest victim. A real page turner. I can't wait for the next book in this series.

Laura Chambers left Boston to return to her hometown of Hillsborough, North Carolina to work as a reporter for the small local newspaper. She has a successful article about a missing girl, but finds herself in competition with an obnoxious co-worker to continue covering the story. Laura is determined to do what it takes to find the girl alive and get the story to help further her career.

Even though the case was intriguing, the first part of the book starts a little slowly, and it was hard to find a character to root for. Even the main character, Laura, is hard to like in the beginning. She will say or do anything, even put her deputy boyfriend's job at risk by taking case notes from him and using them for her story. The pace picks up in the second part of the book and something happens to soften Laura somewhat, although she is still driven to get a good story and determine if there is a serial killer on the loose in their small, southern town.

Some of the details of the killing are gory and hard to read. There are a couple of different twists in the book, but I was completely shocked when the final twist is revealed. I love when a thriller really surprises and I never saw this one coming when Laura confronts the killer who has been communicating with her. In spite of all the tragedy in the book, the ending was satisfying and hopeful.

I received this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of Crooked Lane. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

It started with the disappearance of a ten-year-old girl 20+ years ago. This little girl had tried 3 times to run away from an abusive home. Something had gone wrong each time, until evidently it worked. She wasn't the last girl to have gone missing over the years. No one knew there was a serial killer roaming their neighborhoods.

Present day -- Investigative Journalist Laura Chambers is back in her home town after swearing she'd never be back again. Unfortunately after being fired from her last job, she had no where else to go. Now working for the local newspaper, she has hopes of getting back into the 'real' world of reporting.

A missing girl turns up dead .. and then another. This is the story Laura’s been waiting for―her one last chance to get back onto the front page. She dives deeper into a case that runs colder by the second, only to discover the truth may be far closer to home than she could have ever imagined.

Very well written, this psychological thriller will have you hanging on to every twist and turn. Just when you think you know where it's going, the author yanks you in another direction altogether. Surprises hide behind every dark corner.

This is a debut novel, the beginning of what promises to be an exciting series.

Many thanks to the author / Crooked Lane Books for the advanced digital copy of this Psychological Thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Laura Chambers is back home in Hillsborough, North Carolina, after being fired as an investigative journalist in Boston. She ran afoul of the powerful and her paper let her go rather than being sued. Now she is working for the local paper and dealing with another reporter who is resentful of her previous success and abusive because of it. She is also living back in her childhood home with her emotionally abusive mother and going to therapy to deal with her problems.

When a young girl's body is found in a field, Laura's first thought is that reporting this could be her chance to get her career back on track and out of Hillsborough. Another young girl is missing and the hunt is on to find her. Laura is sleeping with a police deputy and using him for inside information. Through him she learns the name of the FBI agent who is also working the case and goes to him to share a tip.

The FBI agent points her to a previous series of killings of young girls that happened in 1988 which has a number of similarities to the current case. Laura's investigation into the old case leads to a previous police chief who is still haunted by that case and who offers Laura insights. When a clue leads to the possible whereabouts of the second missing girl Laura can't the the police to take her seriously and her FBI contact is unavailable. So she goes to the man she was sleeping with who is going to be fired because the police believe he is the one who shared information with Laura. He is killed while investigating and so is the supposed killer. Laura is hurt. The police and the FBI are eager to mark the case closed and Laura is the pariah who got a police officer killed. Then another girl disappears.

This was a fast-paced story with a damaged main character. She has lost her faith in humanity and her own ideals. She is, however, determined to find out what happened to the two girls who are still missing even it it costs her life. There were a number of twists and turns to the story and a surprise that I didn't see coming that made this a compelling story.

Laura is a journalist who has had to return home from Boston after being fired from her job there and now is working on the local paper covering mundane and run of the mill stories. Then a young girl goes missing and is found dead. However, this is not the first young girl to go missing and die. Laura sees her opportunity to make this case her own. As she finds out more and more her own life is in danger and who do you trust?

There are books that stay with you throughout your lifetime, whether one you love (The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas or one’s that even scar you (It by Stephen King), and then there are those rare books that knock the breath out of you, yet you never see it coming. Last Girl Gone by J. G. Hetherton is the latter (and maybe a little of all of the above).

I absolutely love thrillers, they resonate for some strange and disturbing reason. But many times they are predictable, which takes away from the story. Last Girl Gone is anything but predictable, purveying so many WTF moments that literally make the reader gasp at the genius depravity, in the best possible way.

The story opens with the disappearance of Patty Finch from the sleepy town Hillsborough, NC on edge in 1988. Little did they know, she was only the first. Years later, Laura Chambers, a strong, albeit slightly damaged woman, who’s career as an investigate journalist for the Boston Globe is shrouded in scandal and disgrace returns home to the small town of Hillsborough where no secret is safe. Forced to take an unimportant job at the local paper, where the work is mundane and worst of the all, the most exciting part of her day is her therapy sessions. That is until two ten-year old girls go missing and the town is once again on edge…

J. G. Hetherton takes the reader into a deep, dark place, where the twists and turns will keep them guessing until the last page is turned. It is the very definition of a page turner and one can only hope that this will not be the last we see of Laura Chambers. This book is released on June 12, 2018– run, don’t walk to grab this book!! #LastGirlGone #NetGalley #CrookedLaneBooks

A fantastic debut novel and an exciting start to a new series!

I am drawn to books with a journalist as the lead (perhaps related to the fact that my grandfather was a notable journalist) because I think journalists are a great mix of detective and every-day person—and isn’t that all of our dream?? Laura Chambers is the lead character in what has been promised as a new series (they are calling this Laura Chambers #1 so I made the assumption) and she is a truly wonderful lead. She’s bold, uninhibited, vulnerable, driven, and empathetic. Just a truly wonderful mix of traits and Laura is a character I really connected with! I thought I’d enjoy this book, but it surpassed me expectations!

PLOT

Laura Chambers is back in her hometown in Hillsborough, North Carolina—a town she hoped she had left behind for good after high school. Working for the local paper is a big setback for Laura’s career—following an incident working for the Boston Globe, Laura had nowhere else to turn. At the local paper, Laura is bored and finds herself stuck with a toxic male journalist coworker, covering tax changes and weather events.
But her career may be taking a turn again when she finds herself in the middle of an intriguing case that has national news written all over it. Two girls have gone missing from Hillsborough, and one has been found murdered. The fate of the two girls is terrifying in its own right, but the town is particularly on edge because it reminds them of a string of girls who went missing—some of whom were found murdered—back in the 1980s. A killer dubbed by the media as The Kid was never located. Is The Kid back?

Laura knows that this case is her chance of getting back out of Hillsborough. And she’s lucky to be “seeing” a local deputy—the attractive Frank Stuart. As Laura balances her relationship with Frank and her interest in learning what leads the police find on the case, she struggles to get to the bottom of the case before another girl is taken or murdered. Digging deep into the town archives, Laura finds herself wondering about the connection between the two sets of kidnappings and murders. But before she can get too far, Laura suddenly finds herself to be the target of the Killer’s interest… Can Laura find the killer before she finds herself the next victim??

REFLECTION

I was shocked to learn this is a debut book by this author, because this book is so polished and well-developed. The town of Hillsborough and its residents are very important to the story, and J. G. Hetherton described them so well. The residents love of the local police, their disdain for anyone (such as Laura) who tried to leave, their conviction that what happens in their town is safe, and it is only outsiders that cause problems—all of these tidbits made the book feel so authentic. Laura is in a tough position because the townspeople feel that she has rejected them. By leaving, Laura has shown them that she wants more than what they have settled for in life, and she struggles to reintegrate now that things have gone south in Boston.

This is also a book filled with strong females. Though not all of the female characters in this book are likeable or good people, they nevertheless have a theme of strength running through them—where they do not allow themselves to be defined by their relationship to the males in their lives. The male characters really ranged in their presentation. There were the good ol’ boys, the ones trying to make a difference, and the ones who were toxic males. I liked that Hetherton put so much thought into his characters for this book. All of the main and supporting characters had some depth to them. Laura’s mother, for instance, is horrible so much of the time, but then just when you want to write her off she has a moment of truth. She is able to tell Laura something about herself that while tough to hear, is important for Laura to know.

I would recommend this book to mystery and thriller lovers. I liked that it was not a police procedural, but still had elements of that genre. I think it will appeal to a variety of readers for that reason. The case itself is also interesting and heartbreaking. As a small trigger-warning, there are a few descriptions of the murders/victims/bodies that suggest at some dark aspects to this killer. Nothing is too graphic in my opinion, but I do want to put that warning out there.

Thank you so much to J. G. Hetheron, NetGalley, and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Laura Chambers, previously a reporter for the Globe now working for her hometown newspaper is looking for a big story. Before she knows it, she is knee-deep in trying to prove a serial killer that had been killing little girls decades ago could still be active. 

This book is slow to pick up, but once it does it takes you on a roller coaster ride and before I knew it, I was sucked in. This was a great crime thriller. The characters were well developed and this book kept me guessing! Thanks to the publisher, the author and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.

Last Girl Gone is a novel based in a small town where a girl has been found murdered and another missing. Centered around an investigative journalist who runs a thin line between journalist and detective with many problems of her own, brings with it the intricacies of following a serial killer closely, almost too close. Last Girl Gone starts off quite slow and I will admit is hard to get stuck into but all at once turns into a gruesome thrilling novel that you won't put down.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First a HUGE round of applause to the author J.G Hetherton for making me stay up half the night flipping pages like a mad woman while nervously twisting my hair and trying to remember to be quiet when I yelled "omg no way" and "what the what"?!" every few pages! Congrats and Thank you!

This was one of those books that I found myself totally immersed in without realizing how invested I had actually become and next thing I know I'm 100 pages in or so and I cannot put it down. Can't stop. Won't stop. There were twists, darkness, terrible people doing terrible things, missing children, and a journalist who was willing to go the darkest places both physically and emotionally.

This was so well written and the characters were super easy to get attached to (or hate!). I loved the development of the friendship between Laura and Rodgers. And I would like to award Laura Chambers with the #BadAssWomen Club star because she is a true B.A.W who will stop at nothing or at no one to get to the truth. She was put down, passed over, laughed at, verbally abused and yet, nothing stopped her from getting to the bottom of the truth that no one else believed. My table of the #BadAssWomen I would love to sit and have wine with is getting bigger and Laura Chambers is an awesome addition!

Thank you to #NetGalley and T.G Hetherton and the publisher #CrookedLaneBooks for the opportunity to read this way early with a free ARC. I wish you success with this book in June because I think it deserves ALL THE STARS!!
Friends: PUT THIS ON YOUR TBR for June!!!!

Laura is a reporter who moved back to her small town after problems at her previous job in Boston. When two girls disappear and one is found dead, she wants the story. This got off to a slow start, but eventually I was very wrapped up in it. I didn't like Laura, or most of the other characters, that much, and the one I did like was an unfortunate choice. There were a few twists, one of which I saw comings, others I did not. Overall it was good, 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4.

Last Girl Gone by Grant Heatherton is one of those books that hook you before you even realize you were hooked! The characters are interesting and the story is compelling enough that before you know it your halfway through the book and can't stop. Laura, a reporter, is looking for a big story and before she knows it she is involved in finding and proving a serial killer had been taking little girls decades ago and may still be active, but is that all to the story? Nope! Not by a long shot! Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC book for my honest opinion. I will be looking forward to reading more from this author.

Just finished it ,and while it's slow going in to it, it does pick up, with that said I would like to think Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review Last Girl Gone

The description of this book sounds great, but it felt kind of disjointed to me. It seemed the mystery was solved, but then the book keep going on like nothing was solved. Unfortunately, I just didn't like Laura Chambers much. At first, I felt bad for her losing her job, and becoming a pariah, not to mention her horrible excuse for a mother. But, as the book went on Laura just came off as a selfish, mean person and I didn't like spending my time with her.

This book had a logical plot until the end which seemed contrived. The voice was stark and killing descriptions too gruesome for my taste

Last Girl Gone – J. G. Hetherton

I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

Laura Chambers is an investigative reporter, who – after a scandalous exclusive and forced retraction in Boston – has returned home to Hillsborough, North Carolina, to lick her wounds. She is able to procure a position with the local newspaper but finds herself limited to ‘small town’ reporting, and competing with the mayors’ son, also a reporter. Then, the first young girl disappears and turns up dead. Soon, another is taken.

Using her big city skills, and her ‘sometime’ cop lover, Laura is able to deduce that the FBI has been consulted and manages to contact the investigative Special Agent, ‘Tim’ Timinski. While the agent is reluctant to trust her with present information, he refers her back to a similar occurrence thirty years ago – where three young girls had also gone missing and killed, in hopes that re-emerging information with an old case may help. Laura enlists the help of the former investigating deputy of the cold cases, Donald Rodgers, who has never been able to forget the case he couldn’t solve.

As she researches those killings, to find new information to keep the story on the front page, she enlists her therapist Jasmine to help her create a profile of the killer, as she researches and speculates that past and present killings may be linked.

A cracked code leads to a showdown in a secluded cabin where both a disgraced cop and the suspected killer are killed, and Laura is left injured. The killer is dead, now where is the missing child?

As the search continues, Laura discovers more links to past and present, leading her to believe that perhaps the killer isn’t dead at all, but alive and well, searching for the next victim, and that victim may just be Laura herself…

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The characters are well developed, and the story is full of satisfying twists and turns that I did not see coming. While I can usually identify the protagonist early on, this book kept me guessing right up to the end – and then the end was especially satisfying!

Great read!! Hoping to see more soon from Mr. Hetherton!!

Full of twists and turns. Everytime I thought I had it figured out, something else would happen. I look forward to reading more by this author.