The Lost Angels: A Thriller by Michele
Domínguez Greene is a direct sequel to the Hollywood Hitmen novel
of last year. Like that book, this read is not really a thriller though it is a
bit grittier. This read is more like an actual police procedural as well.
The plight of young children and teens
on the streets is a nationwide problem. It is also the main storyline of The
Lost Angels: A Thriller. Evie Peacock is one of those teens on the
streets of Los Angeles doing almost anything to survive. As the book opens on a
rainy night, she is seventeen, and very worried about her friend, Layla Waters.
The same friend, Layla Waters, who had called her a couple of days earlier, and
said the guy she had been living with was bad news after all. She had promised come
back to Evie and the others in their small group who all look out for each other.
She also wanted to show Evie something so they could figure out what to do and
who to tell about it.
That was not to be.
Soon, Officer Cassidy Clarke, just back
at work in the LAPD after a stress leave due to recent events, will be part of
the hunt for the missing Layla. So, too will her father, Bill Clarke, who is on
a better mental footing these days, thanks to the medication he is now on and
other things. It would be helpful if the killer languishing in prison would
stop calling for him.
Then there is Melinda Drake, director of
the Kidz Club house, who is just about at her wits end. She runs a resource center
and overnight shelter for homeless teens and runaways. Her place is a sanctuary
for those living on the streets. It is a
well-known refuge and sorely needed.
She flags down Cassidy and Officer Sean Riley
while they are on patrol. She wants to follow up on numerous phone calls she has
made regarding several missing kids. She knows of at least five kids who used
to be frequent guests and now have seemingly disappeared. She also knows of a
very low-level pimp, Aiden Howe, who used to be around all the time, and now is
not.
She’s called in repeatedly to report
these situations. She’s talked to Captain Dykstra of the Hollywood Station, who
promised somebody would come by and take a report. Nobody ever did, no matter
how many times she called. So, she flagged down Cassidy and Riley to ask,
again, that somebody listen and do something.
Using her data terminal in their patrol
car, Cassidy files a report for each of the missing kids so that the
investigative ball gets rolling. Cassidy isn’t about to just file the reports
and move on either. Neither will her former detective father, now retired and
working as a private investigator, as he never lets anything go. Both of them
and others will work the cases of the missing kids while also working other
cases and dealing with past and present events in various storylines.
While an incredibly depressing topic
when one thinks about the thousands and thousands of kids living on the streets
of this country, the topic is handled well in The Lost Angels: A Thriller
by Michele Domínguez Greene. Plenty of action and mystery are present in this
read that also concludes several over arching storylines from the first book.
The resulting read is far more of a police procedural than the cozy style first
book. That fact made it, for this reader, a far more entertaining and enjoyable
read.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/42vms9L
My digital ARC came from the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
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