This story introduces a new detective duo.

Whit McKenna has come to Medford, Oregon with her two teenage daughters after the death of her husband. She was a reporter and he was her photographer in Kabul when they were kidnapped by Taliban terrorists. Taken into the mountains, they got a chance to run but her husband John was shot and killed by the terrorists. Whit escaped with the help of a Special Forces team training in the area but she was left with PTSD and a terror of forests.

Katie Riggs is a police detective who switched to being a medical examiner after a bout with melanoma.

The two women met at a local book club and bonded. They frequently meet for coffee or a drink and they are running partners. Katie encouraged Whit to get back into journalism even though cops and journalists often have contentious relationships.

Both of them are looking at a crime but from different viewpoints when the body of famous actress Niki Francis is found buried in a shallow grave. While Whit goes looking for witnesses that she can quote for her story, Katie gets involved in the autopsy where it is discovered that Niki had a teratoma growing on her spine. Teratomas are relatively rare and were just a matter of interest but not necessarily relevant to her investigation.

Then there is a house fire and Whit happens to be there to see the body of the homeowner. She interviews a neighbor who gives her some insight into the lawyer who died. He seems to have been going through some kind of mid-life crisis causing him to leave his wife and take up with a young Czech woman. Whit is approached by the man's wife who is sure that her husband was murdered and she begs Whit to investigate. Then there is a third victim when a lawyer who is found in her pool and is suspected of drowning. But both lawyers have teratomas too.

I enjoyed this story which was an entertaining medical sort of mystery. I liked the personalities of the two main characters and liked that both of them had a lot of depth to their stories. I would be eager to read more about this pair of sleuths. ( )

How far would you go to tap the fountain of youth? And what if it kills you in the end? A Desperate Place is a fast-paced mysterious thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. With journalists and detectives racing against time to both break a story and the cycle of a killer, things can get dicey.
Interesting, and a bit gruesome on some of the details, but fascinating, and trust me you will be surprised by this journey.

*I received an arc from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review ( )

A Desperate Place is a mystery that takes place in Medford, Oregon. I had to read it for that reason. And then to make it better, it features a crime-solving duo. McKenna and Riggs are a reporter and a pathologist who collaborate and share information in order to advance their separate investigations. This is not exactly a Rizzoli & Isles kind of collaboration because they’re working under ethical guidelines that preclude complete sharing of information.

McKenna is covering a fire where a man died, perhaps by suicide, when she’s called way to another story. A body has been found in the woods, thanks in part to a bear. When the woman is autopsied, a stranger monstrous tumor is found. Even stranger, the same thing is found in the man who died in the fire.

I enjoyed A Desperate Place even though the solution seemed obvious long before our investigators got to it. McKenna is too reckless and well before the end, she was saved by a colleague ignoring her orders. I also did not get a real sense of place. It felt as though some of the setting came from research rather than experience.Still, the writing is fast-paced and the plot is original

A Desperate Place will be released August 11th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

A Desperate Place at Crooked Lane Books | Penguin Random House

Jennifer Greer

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/07/01/a-desperate-place-by-jenn... ( )