Josie flinches as she takes in the faded blue sports jacket wrapped around the girl they just pulled from the water. Josie knew someone who’d once owned that jacket. He had died in her arms five years ago.
Heavy rain pours on the small town of Denton causing the riverbanks to break and the body of a young girl to float quietly to the surface. With no crime scene to examine, the odds are against examine, the odds are against Detective Josie Quinn and her team. Mercifully, the victim’s body is perfectly preserved, right down to the baseball patch on the jacket she was wearing. Josie can’t hide her devastation—her dead ex-husband, Ray, owned one just like it.
Following the trail back to her high school, Josie identifies the girl as Beverly Urban, a troubled student rumored to have been dating Ray before she left town for good. It looks like a tragic accident until the autopsy reveals a bullet in her head and the heart-breaking secret she was keeping.
Josie visits the salon where Beverly’s mother used to work, believing she was at the heart of a terrible scandal around the time her daughter’s life was taken. With the Denton wives remaining tight-lipped, Josie’s only hope is a secret meet-up with a terrified woman willing to talk. But she is murdered moments before giving Josie crucial information. It’s clear that someone is prepared to keep on killing to stop the truth from getting out.
Digging deep into memories of her own past with Ray is the only advantage Josie has on this twisted killer… but at what cost?
Another jaw-dropping crime thriller from an Amazon, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author that will have you absolutely gripped from page one. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine.
Everyone is talking about Save Her Soul:
‘Definitely the best book of the series so far!… captivating!… a brilliant twist…it had me well and truly hooked… a fantastic read!! I was captivated by the storyline right from the very first page and I couldn’t put the book down until I’d finished it… The story twisted and turned… I faced so many ‘what the hell’ moments as the action just kept coming!! Happily, I have to say I didn’t guess who was responsible and loved how it all cleverly fell into place! Each book of the series just keeps getting better!’ Stardust Book Reviews, 5 stars
‘Totally couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting. It was full of danger, angst and turmoil and kept me guessing…It was great, a real page-turner…A bloody brilliant book that deserves 5 stars.’ Bonnie’s Book Talk, 5 stars
‘A rollercoaster of an ending. I didn’t expect that twist in the end. I knew that something was off the whole entire book but I didn’t know that is was going to be a whopper of an ending. I would’ve never guessed it in a million years…all the twists in this book made it an easy and fast read. I would definitely recommend.’ Blue Moon Blogger, 5 stars
‘An absolutely brilliant book. I was totally gripped from the first page. Full of intrigue and psychological thrills. A really fast-paced book. The ending is a total wow!!’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars
‘Five she-knocked-it-out-of-the-ballpark stars!!!… This book had it all – character development, mystery, suspense, drama… I was so enthralled… captivating, thought-provoking and well researched.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars
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Save Her Soul (Detective Josie Quinn #9) by Lisa Regan is non-stop action and suspense. This story has Josie searching through the flooded streets and neighborhoods looking for answers to the murder of a high school classmate. Not only is Josie in danger during the investigation, but her emotions are all over the place due to memories she will never be able to forget.
The city is flooding with a deluge of rain for days. Josie and Gretchen go on a rescue mission to pull a senior citizen to safety. After a successful rescue, they watch as the house is swept off the foundation and a suspicious-looking blue tarp starts floating from under the house. Josie knows there has to be a body wrapped inside the tarp from the size and shape. She dives back into the water and secures the body. Imagine her shock when at the morgue as the tarp is slowly unwound and a mummified body wearing Ray’s missing baseball jacket is discovered. The victim is well known to Josie as the bully at school who intimidated her and told everyone she was dating Ray behind Josie’s back. There are layers to the secrets and lies within a prominent community whose residents will do whatever it takes to keep the crimes in their past covered.
I enjoy the Josie Quinn series and this book had me worried for her emotional and mental well-being. She learns a family secret that could change her life. Josie is close to a meltdown after trying to rise above the torture and abuse of her childhood. Will this case break her?
Publication Date: August 12, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.
Um… wow! where to start… where to start. Okay… let’s start with the 10 great things you know you can always count on in a Detective Josie Quinn novel: (and, yes, I’m going to try this without spoiling anything)
1. Lisa Regan’s writing is superb
2. Your heart will race, jump, sink and cry more than once while reading
3. Noah is mouthwatering… and very sweet (you have to love him for the way he loves Josie)
4. Gretchen is cool
5. Working in the same town you grew up in has its advantages and disadvantages
6. Josie can function on little to no sleep
7. Josie is a badass and so is her grandma
8. Josie finds all the danger
9. Josie saves the day and gets the bad guy every.damn.time.
10. You will want to turn back to page one and start again once you’re finished
I think this one might be my favorite. I always say this when I finish one of these books, but I think it might be more true this time. Save Her Soul is so raw and so emotional. At one point, I had to stop reading because I couldn’t see the words through my tears. Josie is like an old friend to me now, everything that affects her, affects me—and damn—did it affect me this time. I’m torn between wanting Josie to start therapy and not wanting her to start therapy. If she solves all of her emotional problems, what will Lisa have to write about? But at the same time, I want to see her work through all those problems. Thankfully, there are more books to come!
Save her Soul is absolutely superb. Knowing that Lisa Regan wrote this during a pandemic just makes me love it more. It couldn’t have been easy, especially with the emotions involved. I feel like Lisa really poured her heart into this book, and it shows. In this one, we see Josie as an insecure young woman, but we also see the growth and wisdom of an old soul. Watching her fight to overcome her past, forgive a bully who tortured her in high school, and show some good solid empathy and compassion for that same bully was awe-inspiring. Seeing her grip so tightly to the few remarkable and beautiful people who supported her in her youth, and then feeling the letdown or the loss of them when new things come to light…ugh! And I can’t share it because I’ll spoil the book for you. Just know, it’s THAT GOOD. Everything about this book is so freaking good.
Save her soul is an awe-inspiring, extraordinary read that will make you feel angry one minute and heartbroken the next. It has all the feels AND all the action you could possibly want in a summer read!
I love love love Josie Quinn. I can’t say enough about this series.
Denton, Pennsylvania is being inundated with rain, which is causing flash flooding everywhere. Josie and Gretchen are called to the rescue of an elderly lady who couldn’t evacuate in time. Her house is washed away in the flood waters and it unearths a blue tarp tied up. Josie believes there is a body in that tarp and she risks her life to retrieve it. The body is that of a girl that Josie went to high school with, who appears to have been killed 16 years ago. Josie and her team investigate to find the killer.
This book is action packed. I would definitely recommend this series of you haven’t picked it up already.
After several days of heavy rain and flooding the town of Denton, Josie is out there helping in the rescue missions. When a house goes down in a landslide a long kept secret emerges from the basement and Josie has to find a killer and hold on to the good memories she has of her childhood friend, high school sweetheart and first husband. As usual the author captured my attention from the first chapter and it was impossible to put the book down. Highly recommended series!
Save Her Soul is another action packed installment in Detective Josie Quinn’s world. In this newest murder mystery, Josie’s hometown is under seige from relentless flooding. While on a rescue mission, Josie makes a rescue to watch a house wash away and a body with it. Josie’s high school nemesis and bully has been dead for years, wrapped in a tarp and in Josie’s dead ex’s letterman jacket. Now Josie will risk life and limb to find out the truth behind the death and if her life with Ray was a lie. Years of trauma are brought to the surface as Josie deals with major stess and life changes for an emotional Josie that will pull at the heart strings. A page turner of a story that doesn’t have a stopping point and ends way too soon. Josie’s stories will always keep me coming back for more. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
Detective Josie Quinn and her team are called to investigate when a woman’s body is seen floating in the flood waters of their small town. Seems she was buried under one of the houses and when the house broke apart, her body floated to the surface.
Fortunately the woman’s body is perfectly preserved…. she’s even wearing a special leather jacket … one that belonged to her ex-husband. But he’s been dead 5 years so how did this woman wind up with it?
Josie identifies the girl as Beverly Urban, both were in high school at the same time. It looks like a tragic accident until they find the bullet in her brain … and the secret she was keeping.
As all this author’s books, SAVE HER SOUL is well written with mystery and suspense starting on the very first page. The book takes place partly in Josie’s memory of her high school years as she was in love with her future husband to be … and the victim, who also had thing for the young man. There was a lot of angst between Josie and Beverly.
The mystery deepens as Beverly’s mother, who has been missing 16 years, appears and wants to talk to Josie. But the mother is murdered before that happens.
The character are skillfully drawn and being a small town, there are lots of lies and secrets waiting to be uncovered. Although 9th in the series, it is easily read. I highly recommend reading all in this series ….
Many thanks to the author / Bookouure / Netgalley for the digital copy of this continuing crime fiction/ thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
After the events that touched her so personally in Find Her Alive, there’s a new vulnerability to Josie which plays a big part in the events of this book. I have enjoyed Josie’s personality, but think this new addition is very welcome. The plot starts with a gasp-worthy scene involving a rescue in raging floodwaters. We soon find out that once again, Josie may have a personal connection to the case. I liked the way that town politics played a part in the case; that’s relatable. And I also like how the author knows all of the different jobs that play a part in an investigation. Everybody is recognized. This series shows no signs of slowing down. For a full review, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital ARC of the book.
Save Her Soul by Lisa Regan
Detective Josie Quinn #9
Denton, Pennsylvania is in flood mode with all emergency personnel, police, and available volunteers doing their best to save citizens when one rescue made by Josie’s team ends up with a body and cold case to solve. Of course, there is more to the story than just identifying the body and trying to determine what happened.
What I liked:
* Josie: an intriguing detective who has personal knowledge related to the murdered teenage girl found in a tarp. She is part of a great team at work and in a healthy relationship with her significant others. Josie is still dealing with her past and what a past it was!
* Gretchen: another detective that has come to Denton more recently and is a good partner to Josie on the job.
* Amber: new to the team and fighting hard to do her job as press liaison though the police suspect her of spying for the mayor.
* Noah: Josie’s significant other doesn’t get a lot of time on the page but seems to be a good man who cares for Josie and is willing to help her work through difficult days on the job.
* Lisette: a loving grandmother to Josie
* The new thread of Hayes appearing on the scene – wonder how he and Josie will interact in the future.
* All of the team members that Josie works with
* The plot, writing, police procedural aspects of the story, and how it all plays out in the end
* Having all the loose ends tied up at the end
* Hoping that there will be a book ten in the future.
What I didn’t like:
* The murderer(s)
* Being reminded of how horrible domestic and child abuse are, that bullying has always been around, dysfunctional relationships and families, knowing that much of what was evil, sad or disturbing is real and true for many in this world.
Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC – This is my honest review.
4-5 Stars
Another thrilling case for Detective Josie Quinn. Josie and her team are dealing with the flooding of Denton, Pennsylvania. When a house is swept away a body is turned loose from its grave. Josie is flung back to her past as she recognizes the school jacket that is wrapped around the body…it belonged to her first husband, Ray. Every time she and her team begin to make headway in the investigation, another clue or suspect is revealed. Their suspects so far – the murdered girl’s mother who disappeared, the people the mother sold drugs to, or an older man who was involved with the teen? Ms. Regan takes the reader along as she investigates and although the case has many facets, she walks you through as if you are part of her team. As Josie closes in on the murderer, she knows her life is on the line. Hopefully, Josie will finally heal from her abusive childhood and her rocky past with Ray. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)
Save Her Soul by Lisa Regan is a Josie Quinn mystery. Josie is a terrific character with a frightening background. Right now the universe is sending more fright her way with flooding. The rains won’t stop and neither will the flooding. It is so bad that police detectives (Josie) are out on boats rescuing people. As that is happening the floodwaters literally send the house of the newest rescued down the river. And a long with the house, floats up something wrapped in a blue plastic tarp. It’s a body; Josie knows it and so goes to stupid lengths to retrieve it from the rushing water. For that, she gets several dressings down, but save it she does and because of the general mess in the area she ends up transporting it to the morgue in her car . . . her brand new car. After taking care with the tarp and the tape holding it on (possible fingerprints), the coroner was able to ascertain that it was a young woman, partly mummified, definitely a murder victim. The awful part was that she was wearing a letter jacket from the local high school; a very special letter jacket that Josie knew in an instant had belonged to her dead husband and high school sweetheart, Ray. High school had been when he truly loved her and would never have cheated. Who was t his and how had she gotten the jacket? Was Ray going to be he latest person who had let her down?
Josie Quinn has the most complicated and horrific early life imaginable. It was every nightmare available assigned to one person. She has come through it, mostly, with grace and humor, and a taste for alcohol. Thankfully, the alcohol is behind her, but she is still tempted, a need that is a deeply ingrained part of her character. She is a clever and hard-working detective who has opened her home, in this tragic time, to the girlfriend Ray had had before he died, after their marriage broke up, and her and Ray’s son. She visits her grandmother in the nursing home regularly. She is generally a good human being about to be kicked in the teeth again. Fortunately her live-in boyfriend, Detective Noah Fraley is there for her and loves hr for all the good in her, and refuses to let her be pulled down by the bad. This was a terrific mystery/police procedural/thriller. The plot was complicated and well thought out. Regan was very careful throughout to reveal it slowly, allowing the tension to build, for both the reader and Josie. Enjoyable read. I recommend it.
I was invited to read a free ARC of Save Her Soul by Netgalley. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #savehersoul
Another great entry in the Josie Quinn series by Lisa Regan. There has been massive flooding in Josie’s town of Denton, and when a house is ripped from it’s foundation, a body is released into the water. Putting the rescue team she’s been riding with at risk, Josie knows she can’t let this potential victim disappear and she jumps in to pull it to safety, while almost being swept away in the process. But as usual, her gut instinct is right and the body is found to be that of an old high school classmate and personal bully of Josie’s, Beverly Urban. Not only that, but she is wearing the jacket of Josie’s ex-husband and childhood sweetheart, Ray.
Josie is determined to treat her like any other victim and put her personal feelings aside, but it becomes a constant struggle throughout the case. She and her team discover that both Beverly and her mother, Vera, haven’t been seen in 15 years. Is Beverly’s mother guilty or will another victim be discovered? And how do a group of upper class wives that used to socialize with Vera at her salon figure into this? The well to do families have been lambasted for diverting the town’s emergency supplies, but are they guilty of something even more sinister?
Poor Josie never seems to get a break, as in the midst of this investigation her grandmother, Lisette, divulges a life changing blow that threatens to break down all of Josie’s defenses. It will take all of her strength to push through the emotional havoc and find justice for Beverly. Fellow readers know that if anyone can overcome obstacles like these, it is Josie. Flooding may be destroying the town, but it’s not the only danger threatening their community. But which will cause more the greater destruction?
This was the ninth book in the Josie Quinn series and it was an excellent addition to the series. I love Josie Quinn and the rest of the characters that are in these books. They all play such a huge part that make these books work so well.
In these book we learn more about Josie’s past because she finds the body of girl that she went to high school with who has been missing since the end of her junior year. Josie has to figure out what happened to this young girl who back then she did not get along with. During the investigation Josie is faced with a lot of old fears and learns some things that changes her future as well. This book shows a side of Josie we as readers have never seen before and I loved it. I can’t wait to see where she goes from here and how she grows after this book.
Save Her Soul was an excellent read for the story but more importantly for the growth of the main character of this series. I am giving this book five out of five stars.
No question about it ; a well deserved 5 star read !
I love the Josie Quinn series and Book 9 is just as good if not better than 1 – 8.
I am tired after all the action that Josie , Gretchen, Noah and her team go through to catch who killed Beverly over 16 years ago. The town all thought she and her mum had just moved on one day.
Lisa Regan always throws a few curve balls at the reader , twists and turn and there is always a new aspect of Josie’s life that we learn right along with her.
I am in line already for Book 10; I won’t get tired of this series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an outstanding read.
We’re in Denton, Central Pennsylvania. When severe rainfall causes the whole town and surrounding county to be flooded, the police have to help with evacuating those people left behind because they couldn’t self-evacuate. At the same time, there’s political unrest because the mayor and her opponent divert crucial emergency flood material to their own neighbourhood. The mayor hires a press liaison officer to deal with journalists but the other police officers consider her to be a spy for the mayor.
Detectives Josie Quinn and Gretchen Palmer have only just rescued an elderly lady when her whole house washes away. Josie spots a body wrapped in tarpaulin floating out of the basement. As it’s not the way that normal people bury their loved ones, she’s certain they’ve discovered an old homicide. The body turns out to be a young woman who’s wearing a baseball jacket Josie knows all too well. Several details confirm that it is the very jacket that belonged to her then-boyfriend (later on her husband) Ray. Who is she? Who buried her in the basement and why? Why is she wearing Ray’s precious jacket? Who killed her? Josie has to revisit her school days to solve this mystery.
Of course, I knew about Lisa Regan but I don’t think that I ever read something by her. When I spotted this title on Netgalley, I jumped at the opportunity and I was not mistaken. This is police procedural at its best. Even though it is the 9th book in this series, I could understand everything that went on. There’s a lot of personal history mixed in with the investigation but where necessary, the events from previous books are repeated. Judging from those backstories, I’m under the impression that that personal involvement in the cases is a trademark of this series. I guess that this is exactly why the series has such an appeal to readers but it also looks that Josie has had an excessive amount of trauma in her life.
Early on in the book, I had an idea about who the culprit was. I thought it rather obvious who the killer was when Alice was so frightened to meet. This time I was dead certain and my theory kept up until the end of the book, where it deflated.
I thank Netgalley and Bookouture for the free ARC they provided me with; this is my honest and unbiased review of it.
this is the 9th book in this series. It starts with a bad flood in a small town where Detective Josie Quinn has grown up in. When a body is found of a young girl that had gone missing years ago, she must dig into her past and her ex husbands to uncover the truth . Very well written plot and characters as the saying goes revenge at its best! A very good mystery never knowing who did it until the very end did not want to put down great ending.
You can tell the author put her heart and soul into writing this book that is appropriately named Save Her Soul.
From the moment I saw that this book was going to be about Josie’s dead ex husband Ray and their childhood I was ecstatic knowing it was going to be an emotional ride from start to finish. From the opening scene of a dramatic water rescue in the flood ravaged town of Denton to the finding of a decades dead body floating in said waters wrapped in her ex husbands high school letterman jacket you are glued to the pages.
Ray is long dead and he didn’t die in the best light but he was Josie’s rock during their childhood and such an integral part of her life during both the worst and best times. I love how the author has never swept him under the rug and keeps him a part of the story throughout the series. Josie and Gretchen’s tenacity on finding out what happened to the dead girl that Josie went to high school was also riveting to read.
My only fault with this book is I didn’t want it to end. I can’t wait to see what’s next in this series.
Another excellent Josie Quinn novel by author Lisa Regan. But this one is a bit different. Sure, it has all the mystery and everything suspense readers crave and enjoy in their reads, but after 8 previous cases and a whole lotta tragic backstory for Josie, we’re starting to see some cracks in her ever-tough veneer.
Despite a horrific childhood and other cases that have personally touched Josie, this one gets under her skin more than any other, and she’s feeling it in a deeply emotional way. She keeps tamping it down and trying to ignore all the trauma, but in Save Her Soul, Josie must face issues from her past in order to solve the case, which involves her high school sweetheart, former husband, and fellow cop, Ray Quinn, who died a few years back (in JQ #1), and a schoolmate who bullied her mercilessly. Who could possibly have compassion for some bitter, jealous teenage girl who pushed you down the stairs? Josie can and does.
Trust is important to Josie and something she struggles with daily, and it’s no wonder with all the people who’ve betrayed her. But while hiding her emotions has worked in the past, it’s not this time around and that, more than anything else, in my opinion, is what makes Save Her Soul jump off the virtual page. Josie becomes viscerally relatable. We think cops are tough, and they are, but there’s a reason so many end up with broken marriages or committing suicide. So reading about a detective who actually grapples, and sometimes loses, with the emotional toll of her life and job has taken on her is refreshing, believable, and relatable. Can’t be tough and untouchable all the time, and Josie shows us exactly why, and this enriches the story.
Regan’s writing has become incredibly nuanced. Nothing is obvious or in your face. So much is between the lines, and that’s hard to pull off, let alone pull off well as Regan has done. I never rehash stories or cover plots in my reviews. That’s what synopses are for. Reviews are for readers to express how the book impacted them, and this one, more than the previous 8, which were all excellent, left me hurting and bruised and sad and hopeful and fulfilled and…happy.
You won’t regret picking this one up, and now that Regan has introduced yet another interesting character in Sawyer, we have a lot to look forward to in books 10, 11, 12, 13, 14… Well, you get the picture.
Buy it. Read it. Enjoy it. But make sure you have a box of tissues next to you.
Josie Quinn is a bada** and so is Lisa Regan! When book 9 opens, Josie is thrown into the action immediately, and quite literally! While floodwaters are taking over Denton, it’s all hands on deck, including the detectives that are usually too busy solving murders. Josie has one chance to save an elderly woman in the water, but it’s what she sees after the rescue that has her jumping back into the churning water to save. A blue tarp. Josie and Gretchen are convinced it’s a body. The rescue boat driver is just mad she put their lives at risk for a tarp.
Spoiler alert: It’s a body.
Whose and why it was buried under a house is the task that Josie, Gretchen, Noah and Mett are tasked with figuring out. To add to their problems, they have a feuding group of highfalutins over at the Quail Hallow Estates where the two mayoral candidates live. They’re ‘borrowing’ city emergency resources to protect their homes while the rest of the city is underwater. The detectives and the chief are being pulled in a thousand different directions, but Josie is laser-focused on one: the fact that the dead body she found in that tarp was wearing her ex-husband’s letterman jacket from high school.
As with ALL Lisa Regan books, giving spoilers is easy to do and that makes reviewing her books extremely hard. She weaves that thread so expertly through the storyline from the very first sentence that you don’t finish unraveling it until the very last page. That makes giving an extensive review difficult at best. Kind of like trying to save an injured woman from flood waters and you’re wearing nothing but underwear. (I PROMISE that will make sense if you read this book)
Josie is in the throes of a lot of issues in this book, though. She is faced with so many memories, both good and bad, from her past that she hasn’t dealt with. She’s still dealing with the aftermath of the case with her sister just a few months before, and she has very little emotional reserve left as she’s watching her entire town be swallowed up by the river. When you add in lack of sleep, a decades-old murder, being shot at, and other such Josie Quinn danger moves, she’s not doing too hot. She’s coming apart at the seams and it’s going to take Gretchen and Noah to keep her on track, especially when her grandmother drops another bombshell on her already broken shoulders. I wasn’t sure she was going to hold it together this time, but when the moment arrived for Josie to stand up and fight for her family, her life, her town, and two women without a voice, she did so with all of her usual dedication, even if her voice shook while she did it.
Book 9 of the Josie Quinn series will give you more insight into who Josie was as a teenager and who she is now, and what she CAN become in the future if she starts trusting that who she is, is in fact, a bada**.