And Then She Was Gone: A Detective Jack Stratton Novel by Christopher Greyson

Stacy Shaw was happy.  She had a nice home, a loving husband, a good new job, and she'd just found out that she was pregnant.  Life was good.  Then her car wouldn't start.  Her husband is out of town, she has no one local who could help.  She'll just leave the car there and take a short cut across the park to get home.  She doesn't realize someone is waiting for her...

Greyson Media Associates and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can get a copy now.

This is the start of a new series that fascinates me.  It's the story of a boy raised in foster homes who is friends with those he met there.  His first caretaker is a black woman who is an Aunt to anyone who comes in her home.  She's still taking in foster children.  She asks Jack for a favor.  He has plans to become a cop after he's spent his time in the service and gets money for college through the GI Bill.  He fancies himself a detective.  So she asks him to check out a young black man that is taking the fall for murdering the missing woman.  She and his mother don't think he did it.

This not a good thing for Jack.  He searches all right.  He gets sideways with the cops, finds the woman's dead body, gets accused of murdering her himself, and almost ends up in jail because he's interfering in the police investigation.  He makes assumptions about the police that aren't true.  He also goes in lots of dangerous places and talks to dangerous people in his quest to prove who the real killer is.

There's lots of confusion, lies and fear involved in this case.  Jack keeps chasing the facts and then he attempts to bait the killer.  He almost loses his life.

This was an exciting read.  Not only did his Aunt believe in him, the author made me believe in him, too.  He made some mistakes along the way but he got more right than he got wrong.  I can't wait to see what case he takes on in the next book.