Book Review: Missing by Lisa Harris

by Sandra Ardoin

Nikki Boyd is on another case in the latest novel by Lisa Harris called Missing. This is the second book in the romantic suspense series The Nikki Boyd Files about a detective on the Missing Persons Task Force of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

For Nikki, time is of the essence, professionally, when she’s called to the scene of a double shooting—what seems to be a break-in gone bad—with the intruders dead and the homeowners vanished. But when the husband is found dead on a boat belonging to Grant Tyler and he’s standing over the body, the case takes on a personal angle.

The search for the wife of the dead man leads Nikki and her team, Jack and Gwen, into the world of pharmaceutical companies and the scary proposition that there is a multi-million dollar business in peppering the market with counterfeit prescription drugs.

This series began with the book Vendetta and has two continuing threads: Nikki’s quest to find the man who kidnapped her younger sister ten years earlier and her relationship with Grant, the still-grieving widower. 

He was the husband of her best friend. A grieving father and husband. Which was why after Katie’s death, she’d done everything she could to help him and Liam cope. […]

Until the dynamics of their relationship shifted. At least for her. Falling for him had been completely unexpected.

[…] She wasn’t waiting for him, nor did she have any expectations. But she also didn’t know how to ignore her heart when he caught her gaze. Or the rush of her breath when he touched the back of her hand.

I love the idea of this romance (one-sided though it may be), but I’ll admit, I found myself frustrated with Grant. I don’t want to give away too much, but his little touches here, his gazes there, a hug at every turn…seemed a bit much for someone who was clueless! 

Otherwise, it’s rapid-paced suspense that twists, turns, and racks up the body count quickly as the villains stop at nothing to find incriminating evidence. The faith element is there, but like many books in the suspense genre, it’s light—mostly prayers for guidance as Nikki’s life is torn in various directions and she suffers guilt over her part in her sister’s disappearance.

Lisa Harris is quickly becoming one of my favorites in the genre, and when I’m willing to interrupt my writing time to finish a book, I know I’ve found a good one in Missing!

The back of the book contains the first scene in Pursued, due out next spring. Do you like to read those back-of-the-book previews or would you rather wait for the next in the series to come out?