THE LONG WAY HOME

Samantha Church, recovering alcoholic, ace reporter for Colorado’s Grandview Perspective, and amateur sleuth, searches for her late friend’s lost little sister in the sixth installment of the series.

Sam’s young colleague Hunter was killed in an investigation gone bad. His only remaining family member was his little sister, Jenny, who disappeared years ago. Although Hunter is dead, Sam is obsessed with finding Jenny, and the obvious place to start is El Paso, where Hunter and Jenny were born. The reporter’s new friend, Sandy Petersen, an elementary school teacher, overhears an older fellow say “Hey, look at this, Jenny” to his young companion in a grocery store. Amazingly, that turns out to be the very Jenny in question, and the chase is on. The older man is Houston Meyers, a decorated Marine veteran. Turns out, he found Jenny while looking for paid sex but was immediately so struck by her beauty and vulnerability that he became her fierce protector. We are talking here about sex trafficking—Jenny was raised in Mexico but lured back to El Paso—and that is where attorney Amanda Moore and her henchman, Larry Henderson, come in. They are, in fact, sex traffickers. As we follow the hunt, there are the obligatory violent and nail-biting scenes. Ferrendelli is a competent if not an original writer, and Sam is a likable character/narrator. Several events are mentioned that one assumes took place in earlier books in the series. We learn a lot about sex trafficking and police procedures (Ferrendelli is an experienced journalist). Does it strain credulity the way Jenny is discovered? Let the reader decide. Moore is a despicable villain and is the one character without much nuance. Houston Meyers deserves mention as a very interesting and admirable character, as is Wilson Cole Jr., the wise owner of the Grandview Perspective. Typos don’t overly distract.

A tense, high-stakes read with a layered cast.