Cover Image: Last Seen Alone

Last Seen Alone

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Member Reviews

I love a good thriller. Something to get the mind working, heart racing and having you on the edge of your seat. Great writing, great characters and a great storyline.

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Exciting thriller with lots of twists and turns. Good characters and a bit of romance. Story moves along well and holds the readers interest.

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Fast paced thrilling read with a sideline of romance between the two main characters.
Det Brandon Reynolds is called to a possible homicide when a car is found abandoned and the driver is missing and blood is left at the scene.
Investigating, they find that the owner of the car is represented by lawyer Leigh Larson who fights for victims of on line harassment, sexual extortion and online abuse.
Leigh is intrigued by her clients disappearance and starts to investigate herself, often reaching potential witnesses before Det. Reynolds.
Fast moving and twists and turns along the way - Great read and looking forward to more from Laura Griffin.

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I really enjoyed this book, so full of twists and turns, I was second guessing my conclusions as the story unfolded. Very entertaining. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

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Wow, this is an absolutely brilliant and hot crime read. I loved the characters and how real it all feels. I loved the sexual/romantic tension between the cop and the lawyer. I also loved how it shows the real heart wrenching and gut churning effects of women being harassed, abused and emotionally and psychologically damaged by abusive exes or even husbands. This book doesn’t hold anything back and yet there is always hope too.

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A Fighting Chance…
Detective Brandon Reynolds is tasked with an unusual crime scene. One without a body. Can he track a potential killer and an unseen victim? When he finds a link to attorney Leigh Larson he seeks her out. Together they may have a fighting chance. An entertaining read with twists aplenty.

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Detective Brandon Reynolds and his partner are called out to a potential crime scene - a car has been found abandoned , blood smeared on the door and a larger pool of blood in the nearby forest , also found in the car is a business card from a local lawyer- just what has happened to the car's female occupant Vanessa Adams ?
When the attorney in question , Leigh Larson is questioned about Vanessa she tells the Police that she is not Vanessa's lawyer - but soon finds that Vanessa has posted a signed copy of the contract to her .
Believing she now stands for the potential victim of a crime Leigh starts to insert herself into the investigation , much against Brandon's wishes.

This is a fast paced thriller with a slow burn romance between our Detective and Lawyer running throughout .

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Up-and-coming attorney Leigh Larson fights for victims of sexual extortion, harassment, and online abuse. She is not afraid to go after the sleaziest targets to get payback for her clients. Leigh is laser-focused on her career--to the exclusion of everything else--until a seemingly routine case and a determined cop turn her world upside down.
Austin homicide detective Brandon Reynolds is no stranger to midnight callouts. But when he gets summoned to an abandoned car on a desolate road, he quickly realizes he's dealing with an unusual crime scene. A pool of blood in the nearby woods suggests a brutal homicide. But where is the victim? The vehicle is registered to twenty-six-year-old Vanessa Adams. Searching the car, all Brandon finds is a smear of blood and a business card for Leigh Larson, attorney-at-law.
Vanessa had hired Leigh just before her disappearance, but Leigh has no leads on who could have wanted her dead. Faced with bewildering evidence and shocking twists, Leigh and Brandon must work against the clock to chase down a ruthless criminal who is out for vengeance.

This is an excellent thriller read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

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I am always up for a romantic suspense because I love thrillers and romance on their own genre and was looking forward to read this book.
I enjoyed parts of the story and some characters were really interesting.
The suspense and what happened with Vanessa kept me intrigued. But on the overall vision of the story , I felt like something was missing for me to be much more invested in the book.


Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through NetGalley

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I've read many Laura Griffin books over the years and she really excels at knowing the exact ratio of romance to suspense that is needed. This isn't one of her most exciting stories but it is enjoyable and I really liked most of the characters I think the potential is there to extend this book into a series.

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I know when I pick up a Laura Griffin book I'm going to get immersed in a really good mystery plot that has enough of a romance to keep me hooked, and this was no exception. Brandon Reynolds and his partner Antonio get called in when a car is found abandoned on the side of the road with the passenger door open, all of a woman's belongings - purse and phone - in the car and a smear of blood on the door. One of their first visits is to Leigh Larson, an attorney specializing in stalkers and revenge porn cases. Her card was found in the victim's car. From there we are taken on a journey of mystery as both the detectives and Leigh become embroiled in trying to figure out where the victim is and what happened.

I loved this story - you feel the chemistry between Leigh and Brandon from their first meeting and although the romance is secondary to the mystery, I very much enjoyed the slow burn build up of that. This mystery had me intrigued and I kept wondering who it was, and what had happened and it wasn't at all easy to guess. I love how these books are written - I have no experience or knowledge to gauge how accurate the procedural aspects of the story are, but it feels like you are reading about real people and real situations. Once I started this, I didn't want to put it down until I reached the end. Hoping we get another one featuring Antonio, Brandon's partner.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Eternal for the Advance Reader Copy. I have voluntarily left an honest review.

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would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

leigh lawson is an attorney and she goes after the sleazy and the abusers, it is her vocation

brandon reynolds is a homicide cop and he gets called out to a scene that he suspects will be his shortly but there is no body just plenty of blood

leigh and brandon are about to meet....

brandons only clue at the scene of violence is a card with leigh lawson details

thoroughly enjoyed the feel of this book and am hoping this is the beginning of an interesting series, well written and characters were easy to identify and like

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Working with law enforcement myself, these are always intriguing to me. The differences between the UK (where I am) and the USA's methods of practice are always interesting. In saying that there will always be artistic licence, otherwise it would be a long time waiting for results/paperwork, etc.

Leigh is a lawyer specialising in domestic matters and revenge-p&*n cases. Seeking justice for those abused in the more horrific and public of ways. Her card was found at the scene of abduction and she has no idea why. But at her office a surprise waits, it looks like she was just retained by the victim. She may not know her but she feels an innate need to assist with enquiries. Leading her to butt heads with the dedicated cop on the case.

Brandon wants Vanessa to come home safely and he'll go above and beyond to find her. But things aren't adding up and the very attractive but interfering lawyer keeps putting herself into the investigation!

I did enjoy the story and there were plenty of twists and turns and AHA moments. I did think that Leigh inserting herself quite so much was a bit too much but **artistic licence**, just switch off the brain and go with the flow. Leigh and Brandon were a fair match, both having been burned by love and Leigh's attachment to her clients need for justice came clear (although it was pretty much hinted at from the beginning of the story if you see the clues clearly).

I did struggle to like Vanessa. out victim, if I'm honest. She was kind of her own worst enemy. There are plenty of layers to the story and I was kept very engaged.

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I was looking forward to the new book by Laura Griffin as her romantic suspense novel generally are top-notch. The beginning was great but I found that it moved more slowly with little romance and it just didn't click the way her earlier books have. Still one of my favorite authors and I hope her next book will return to the heart-pounding excitement of her previous books.

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I normally read thrillers and mystery books but I am not averse to a smidgen of romance and this book contains both and held my attention from the very first page.
Brandon is a police detective investigating the disappearance of Vanessa whose car is found abandoned near some woods. When a pool of blood is discovered Brandon suspects foul play although the case is still considered a missing person one as there is no body. A business card in the car directs him to lawyer, Leigh Larson and as soon as the pair meet there is an immediate attraction.
Leigh knows a bit about Vanessa who has approached her and decides to investigate herself, much to Brandon’s annoyance.
It seems that Leigh’s specialism is vengeful ex boyfriends and stalkers and she fears that Vanessa may have had some sort of problem with one although she hadn’t yet revealed this to Leigh.
This was a quick and enjoyable read with plenty of romantic tension as well as a mystery disappearance to be solved. I liked both the main characters and would not be surprised if they appeared in a subsequent book. I would definitely pick up another one if it turned into a series.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

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Laura Griffin is a seasoned writer of Romantic Suspense with many novels under her belt. This book opens with a terrific hook - a women believes she is being followed in her car and runs off into the woods. The next day we have the cops at the scene led by homicide detective Brandon Reynolds - there is blood on the car and a large pool of it in the woods and they suspect murder but there is no body, so Vanessa Adams is listed as missing. Also in the car is a business card belonging to a local attorney Leigh Larson. Brandon interviews Leigh but all she can tell him is that Vanessa had an appointment with her to ask about the ramifications of subletting her apartment - which was way off Leigh's speciality of suing for harrassment, revenge online porno sex tapes and stalking.

After Brandon leaves, Leigh decides that she will do some investigating herself - and this is when things started to unravel for me. All I could think was why would a busy attorney who doesn't know Vanessa or her background from a hole in the ground, who has a newish law firm started up where she is a partner take time out of her incredibly busy workload to hunt down friends, coworkers and family of Vanessa so she can interview them? Of course Brandon finds out about this and one of many conversations follow with him telling her to butt out and she totally ignoring him. I just didn't get it - if Vanessa had been a friend or family it would have made sense but for me this didn't.

There were also a couple of occasions where Leigh stepped into TSTL territory. An incident happened and yet the next day Leigh was wandering around in a rough neighbourhood, in the dark "investigating". On another occasion she warned someone not to do something as it was dangerous and when she was ignored she promptly got in her car to follow!

The romance didn't get too much page time either, the first 100 pages they were hardly together on the page, both doing their investigating. I never got a sense of intimacy between Brandon and Leigh and by that I don't mean sex. There was very little meeting of minds until the very end of the book when they both shared some background and that was very brief and what was shared was less than we had been privy to earlier in the book, for me it was definitely a case of too little too late. There wasn't enough there for me to close the book, sigh with a goofy grin and picture them riding off into the sunset together.

So sadly 2 stars from me on this occasion - but I will definitely pick up another Laura Griffin.

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I made a mistake when I chose to read this romantic suspense, a genre I rarely read, by Laura Griffin, I mixed up this Laura with Laura Dave and was guilty of not paying attention to the blurb. However, I read it anyway, and it was a entertaining read, with me particularly liking 30 year old lawyer, Leigh Larson, a partner with Javier in their law firm of Mendez and Larson. Set in Austin, Texas, APD Homicide Detective Brandon Reynolds is partnered with Detective Antonio Pena. He finds himself at a strange scene on a remote road where there is an abandoned car, there is a smear of blood on the car, and a larger pool of blood in the woods close by which suggests murder but there is no body. The car belongs to 26 year old Vanessa Adams, and there is a business card for Leigh at the scene.

When Reynolds catches up with Leigh at the courthouse, she denies that Vanessa is a client of hers, but he can see she is being less than truthful. Leigh specialises in a particular area of law, she represents victims of stalkers, sexual extortion, harassment, controlling partners and online abuse. Her traumatic past has motivated her choice of law specialisation, ensuring a passion and ferocity with which she fights for her clients, unafraid of going after the nastiest and sleaziest predators out there. She has met Vanessa previously, but Vanessa only becomes her client after she gets the paperwork in the post after meeting Brandon. Leigh cannot help carrying out her own investigation, something of which Brandon does not approve, but she will not give up and the two end up working together in what turns out to be a dangerous case.

Leigh and Brandon are attracted to each other, but both have issues when it comes to relationships, can they overcome their problems with trust, and survive to find out what happened to Vanessa? This was an okay crime and mystery read, it is engaging and I can see many readers enjoying it. For me, it's a case of it's me and not the book, this is not a genre that works well for me, and that is not this novel's fault, its just a mismatch between it and this reader. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

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