Title: When All the Girls Have Gone
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Series: #1 in the Cutler, Sutter, and Salinas Trilogy
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Berkley (November 29, 2016)
Source: Library Find
Rating: ☕☕☕
Synopsis: When Charlotte Sawyer is unable to contact her stepsister, Jocelyn, to tell her that one of her closest friends was found dead, she discovers that Jocelyn has vanished.
Beautiful, brilliant—and reckless—Jocelyn has gone off the grid before, but never like this. In a desperate effort to find her, Charlotte joins forces with Max Cutler, a struggling PI who recently moved to Seattle after his previous career as a criminal profiler went down in flames—literally. Burned out, divorced and almost broke, Max needs the job.
After surviving a near-fatal attack, Charlotte and Max turn to Jocelyn’s closest friends, women in a Seattle-based online investment club, for answers. But what they find is chilling...
When her uneasy alliance with Max turns into a full-blown affair, Charlotte has no choice but to trust him with her life. For the shadows of Jocelyn’s past are threatening to consume her—and anyone else who gets in their way...
My Thoughts: As a fan of many of JAK's books this one was just lukewarm for me.
The Good: The underlying plot thread which should continue throughout the trilogy is actually pretty interesting even though I don't usually care for "cult" themed novels. Max and his 2 brothers were children when their parents joined a cult. They were orphaned when the leader lit fire to the entire complex, including the barn where the children were kept. Placed in foster care, Max, Cabot, and Jack were taken in my the cop who saved all the children. Anyway, this plot thread is actually pretty interesting as they all three believe the cult leader is still alive despite being pronounced dead in a boating accident years after the cult complex fire.
I did like Max and Charlotte but didn't necessarily believe in their romance completely. I liked Charlotte's quirkiness and absolutely loved the retirement home she worked at. With the retirement home came with some wonderful residents. Their appearances in the story stood out to me in such a positive way.
The Bad: While I did like the darker themes within the book (rape cases in addition to murders) I thought they were underplayed a bit while JAK was trying to pull off a believable romance. Also, the mystery was a bit convoluted as the number of murderers increased and finding connections between everything seemed a bit of a stretch.
Even though Max and Charlotte fell in love and we could see how they were heading towards this I thought it was not quite believable because of the time frame and well, insta-love. Throwing in an ex-fiancé into the mix didn't do much to propel the story forward either.
In a Nutshell: Even though this book was just an OK for me I definitely will continue the trilogy to find out how the cult story arch plays out.
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