Mystery/Detective Novel

Another knockout from Louisa Luna! Alice Vega is a kick a$$ protagonist. I love her!

In Hideout, Alice gets hired to find a notorious college football player. He is famous because in giant rivalry game, he gets the ball and runs the opposite direction, scoring a safety for the opposing team giving them the win. He doesn't stop at the goalline however, he runs out of the stadium leaving his clothes and shoes in the parking lot.
Zeb Williams is only ever seen once more in small town Oregon a few months after the run.

Alice shows up in Ilona, OR as a jumping off point in her search for Zeb. Right away she finds other issues and in true Vega style stirs up a hornet's nest with some local white supremacists. How does this tie into the story of Wrongway Williams? At first, it doesn't seem to, but Luna weaves the stories together masterfully.

The ending ropes you in with some surprising twists. There was one moment where the story might have jumped the shark a bit, but otherwise this was an absolute home run! We do get the return of Cap and Nell from the 2 previous novels, which add nice color and give Vega a more rounded personality. This is the 3rd book in the series, but could be read as a standalone.

Highly engaging.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel.

I am a HUGE Louisa Luna fan and will always read her books. But as all readers know, not every book can be your favorite and this, sadly, was my least favorite of the series so far.

Luna's prior books focused more on violence against women. This one was a bit different, starting out with a fascinating decades-old missing football player plot that I liked, but also a less interesting (to me) setting that ended up being most of the book. Also, Alice and Max were separated for most of the time (!) which I also didn't love.

The Goodreads rating on this is high and Luna is such a talented writer that you still should try this. And I will hope that book #4 is more to my personal taste!

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Vega finds missing persons. It’s what she does, and she is good at what she does. This time, she is hired to find a grown man who went missing in his own. She’s in Oregon, and her sometime partner and sometime romantic interest, Max Caplan, is in Pennsylvania. When she starts looking for the missing person, she turns up a neofascist group, and things quickly turn messy; not just for her, but for Cap and even her dad.

Another great entry in the Alice Vega series. I look forward to each one. Definitely recommend for readers who like their main characters strong and unapologetic.

Alice Vega is growing on me with each installment. What a badass. I was really into this for 80% but then it fell a little flat for me at the end. But still a fun ride.

Alice Vega has an unusual missing persons case. A wealthy man wants her to track down "wrong way Williams" - a long-vanished football player who sacrificed a close game by running toward the opponent's side, then running out of the stadium, never to be seen again, except for rumored sightings. She consults with her former partner, a PI living on the other side of the country who is scarred by their previous adventures but bored with his current routine job. Alice decides to take the case, which leads her by a winding path to southern Oregon, where a white supremacist gang is terrorizing the locals. Well, those that aren't entirely supportive of white supremacy.

This is a terrific series, well written and highly character-driven. The relationship between her former partner and his daughter is a well-drawn thread running through all three books. Alice is a bit too reminiscent of Lizabeth Salander, being just as tough and brainy as she is socially awkward, but she's a compelling heroine. I found the action scenes a bit too much like the script of an action film, but that could simply be my growing dissatisfaction with violence on the page (and in film!); others may find them gripping.

Five stars for characters, story idea, and strong writing. A star subtracted for the over-the-topness of the fight scenes, but only because I love this series and expect it to perfectly match my tastes, which is an unreasonable thing to ask.

I wish that I had noticed that this was the third book in a series by the author. Maybe if I had read the first two, I would not have felt so lost.
I just could not find any connection with the main subject, Alice Vega. I was looking forward to reading a thriller/detective novel with a strong female lead. However, I found the author gave the main character all of the unwanted "macho/go-it-alone" traits that I find in a lot of these type books with a male lead. I find this type of personality unappealing and unrealistic. Again, maybe if I had read the first two?
I am still puzzled by the reasons Vega was hired in the first place. Was it the husband or the wife that was trying to find the answers to the missing Zeb?
The ending was way too predictable.
I did like the plot, looking for a long-missing person, and the white supremacy angle. I enjoyed the parts with her former (???) partner, and his struggles with PTSD.
I received this book as an advance reading copy from NetGalley in return for a fair review.

Forget Jack Reacher and The Gray Man - Alice Vega is my new favorite tough guy. With Max Caplan on her back, she’s unstoppable.

Doubleday Books......
Thank You for this eARC!

This is my first Luna read.... So I have not read book one or two to the Alice Vega series!
Going backwards I know.... Which I really dislike doing buttttt..... Anyways!

Hideout by Louisa Luna

Here Zeb who has been missing for well over thirty years now....
Zeb was the towns football star back in 1984 he had the football in hand and ran the opposite direction off the field and into the woods... Never to be seen again!

Which leads Vega to Oregon. Where she finds a community of a local hate group who call themselves the Liberty Boys!
She digs and digs into the past and the disappearance of Zeb grow more wilder with each discovery.
And the more she learns about this cult like society named Liberty Boys she gets more disturbed by the minute about this group!
Everyone is hiding something here.... And she is going to find out what!

I've got to go back and start from.the beginning because this series is going to badass!
This is a superb crime fiction that had me flipping the pages so fast!
Brilliant, with a powerful female protagonist and a dynamic crime fighting partnership!
What's not to love here!
We have two terrific main characters, supporting characters to root for, and a whole host of villains!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

So excuse me while I venture back to book one and two 😊
I will post to my platforms closer to pub date!

HIDEOUT is another great adventure with Alice Vega. It's tense, it's gritty and violent but the characters are beautiful, flawed human beings that you want to spend time with. Luna is an incredibly gifted writer. Her earlier Alice Vega novels, THE JANES and TWO GIRLS DOWN are also great. Luna's books are the perfect place to escape when you just want to be somewhere else.