If you are a fan of Law & Order SVU you will love The Drowned Girls. It is dark and the subject matter is pretty brutal, but the mystery is top notch. There is also a parallel romantic storyline that hooks you right in.  Angie Pallorino, our heroine, is struggling with her mother’s dementia while also trying to make detective in a police department that is a total boys club. Angie and her partner are working a case that has surprising similarities to a girl who has been brutally raped and tortured. Because of the similarities, Angie is asked to work with Homocide to try to solve these crimes. Surprisingly, the detective she is asked to work with was her one night stand from the night before. Awkward! Pallorino and Maddocks decide to put that behind them but as the mystery unwinds the tension between them amps up and when they finally give in their passion is explosive.

Both of these characters are flawed and some of their foibles are psychological in nature. The combination of Angie’s possible hereditary turn towards dementia, the horrifying details of the crime they are trying to solve, and the hallucinations she is having about a young Polish girl gives the story a gritty dark tone. Throw in Maddocks new job, his troubled relationship with his teenaged daughter, and both of their inclinations for control in the bedroom making this a very dark tale. However, the fact that these two troubled people support each other with all of their issues gave me hope and kept me reading until the end, which was really satisfactory.

I saw this title on a best romance list and questioned that choice. Not that it isn’t a good book. It is a very good book. But it’s a mystery first and a romance second. Actually, when I think about this novel as I’m writing, the larger aspects of these characters and the storyline are the sinister, mystery elements. Not the romance, though thank God it had one because those scenes lightened the tone a little. Not much, but a little. Anyway, it is an excellent mystery about the darker aspects of humanity, and also about two people who find each other in their darkest hour and learn to trust and support each other. I liked that angle a lot. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review, and it was honest.

Click the link to purchase! The Drowned Girls (Angie Pallorino)

Copyright 2017 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

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