4.5★s
The Fairest is the second book in the Arles Shepherd Thriller series by award-winning, best-selling American author, Jenny Milchman. The audio version is narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen. Crime author, Kara Cross is at her local bookstore in Wedeskyull for a reading/signing event for her new novel when a young girl silently asks for her help with a written message: “I am a missing child”. It’s what Kara writes about, and this doesn’t seem like some Tik Tok stunt. In her own experience, involving the police is worse than useless, so her immediate solution to the dilemma is to take the child to her former therapist, Arles Shepherd at her mountain retreat, Fir Cove.

Arles is just about recovered from injuries sustained some four months earlier, but arrives back from a lengthy drive feeling rather unwell. When revived, she takes on the problem Kara has brought her with mixed feelings: keeping this expensively coiffed, manicured and dressed child, who refuses to give her name or any other details, who displays an unusual sense of entitlement, without notifying the relevant authorities, as Kara has requested, could land her in hot water.

Arles is puzzled, when she drives down the mountain to where the signal cuts in, that there is no Amber alert. And the new, trustworthy police chief is busy with something else. Arles checks out the Books and Brew shop to see that the other event that night was a PR do for a soon-to-be-released movie starring Kip Stratton. And while she stands there, a weird guy who is clearly a Kip Stratton superfan asks about a little girl.

Back at Fir Cove, carefully, without a tail, meals are prepared, beds are made, goodnights said. But early the next morning there are two fancy black cars in her driveway, and a small man with a gun is asking about a girl in the company of a woman. When Arles has seen him off, Kara and the girl have fled. With the help of a game camera, Arles figures out where they have gone, but the next day, the police chief has some bad news, and Arles is soon trekking through the woods hoping to find the girl.

Much more can’t be said without spoilers, but before matters are resolved, there are some nail-biting moments, a killing by axe and a collision take the body-count to four, and there are some jaw-dropping revelations about several persons charged with the care of minors.

Two narratives carry the story, and while Arles’s can be trusted, Kara’s might be unreliable. The girl, though, definitely has a talent for lying. The dialogue is often blackly funny. This instalment has plenty of twists and turns and red herrings to keep the reader guessing and the pages turning, and a neat resolution: will there be more of Arles Shepherd from Jenny Milchman?
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley and Brilliance audio