The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond

The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

April 7, 2020

NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books

304 pages

Mystery, fiction, digital, ARC

ISBN: 9781643852997

Shea O’Connor is a young officer at the Buffalo Police Department who lives with her roommate Karen who is a trauma nurse at Erie County Medical Center. They met at the University of Buffalo. Although she’s 23 years old, Shea finds she is often not taken seriously as she appears much younger than her age. This actually worked to her advantage when she was asked to work undercover for Bill Walters in the FBI. She worked undercover to assist with the capture of a teacher Terry Roberts who was a serial killer.

Just as Shea is slowly recovering from the personal trauma of that undercover case where she almost died, she receives a phone call from Bill Walters. Because Shea feels under appreciated at the Buffalo Police Department, she accepts another secret undercover FBI assignment. Again, she need to pose as a freshman at Harris Community College in Kelly’s Falls, NY as 18 year old, Shea Anderson.
Bill Walters has a cover story arranged with the chief of police, Roy Bishop.

Shea transitions into Theresa Parker’s boarding house posing as the chief of police’s niece who parent recently died in a car crash. She begins to befriend the other borders at the house and settles into her school routine. Her assignment is to uncover the mystery surrounding three missing college students last seen at a party. Shea is eager to emerge herself into the school’s social scene to learn what happened the night the girls went missing.

While Shea is strategically meeting key friends she is introduced to further people who knew the missing girls. Shea isn’t prepared for these relationships to become close and intimate. She earns the trust of Kayla Johnson who is the cousin to Nick and Olivia Stansfield. Olivia is one of the missing girls whose brother Nick, a senior at RIT in Rochester will stop at nothing to find his sister.

Soon, Shea is engaged in typical college life which seems to annoy Chief Bishop who resents her involvement in this cold case. Over time Shea is hanging out at Freddie’s Pizza with Rob, Tyler, Maddie and Jenna and going to parties. Things become tense when Shea becomes involved with Nick Stansfield who starts to develop feelings for her. As much as Shea tries to maintain her professional ethics undercover she can’t help but acknowledge her own growing feelings towards Nick.

As much as she feels guilty, Shea continues a relationship with Nick to gain access to people who know more than they want to admit about the missing girls. Along the way she attracts unwanted attention from Joe Styles who is a local with a reputation for trouble and a girlfriend, Amber Wray who loves to fight.

Just as Shea becomes close to solving the cold case, things explode and she finds herself fearing for her life once again.




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