Amy Imogene Reads's Reviews > The Janes

4.5 stars

This author really knows how to combine all of the good stuff. Dead bodies, pulse-pounding timelines, surprises, twists, and deadly turns all merge to create The Janes.

Writing: ★★★
Plot/Pacing: ★★★★★
Surprises: ★★★★
Enjoyment: ★★★★★

Alice Vega and Max Caplan are back and this time it's more than a kidnapping: it's two dead girls.

In Two Girls Down, the first Alice Vega novel, we're introduced to bounty hunter/mercenary child finder Alice Vega. Vega is quiet, intense, and an absolute badass. She's from California and meets Max Caplan in a small Pennsylvania town to solve the kidnapping. Vega and Caplan solve it, yay, and Vega goes back to California while Caplan stays on the East Coast.

Now you're up to speed on Vega and Caplan's exploits, which brings us to The Janes.

Vega gets a call from the San Diego police. The second dead body of a Hispanic girl is found and in her hand is a piece of paper with a name: Alice Vega.

The police want this problem addressed, but Vega is immediately aware of the red flags—she's in an "informal" meeting, they don't want her on the official books, and they want to pay her under the table in cash. Vega wants to find the murderer and, as there is a sex trafficking plot on their radar, she wants to see if there are other girls she can save. So she ignores the red flags—for now.

She says yes, with one condition: they've got to pay for Max Caplan to help her.

Max Caplan and Alice Vega make an interesting team. Caplan is older—a divorced dad with an ex-cop background, nerves of steel, and a golden moral compass with just enough dents to be interesting. Vega is a younger, Hispanic woman with no affiliation with the law and lot of experience being a gray-area bounty hunter and the drive to do ANYTHING to find her charges. (She also has a mean way of handling a pair of metal cutters, which falls into the "anything" category.)

Caplan arrives in California and immediately, things take off. Caplan and Vega's interesting chemistry is exciting, different, and centered around their ability to work together on an almost mind-reader level. They are the dream team. But this dream team is quickly discovering that the plot isn't thickening around them...it's already solid. And they're trapped.

Anything more than that would be spoilers. Trust me when I say that this plot—it crackles. I read this in almost one sitting because I just couldn't stop, and the plain "no frills" writing allowed for a really fast reading experience. A stellar thriller and a great mystery.

Some other thoughts:
I love that the author tackles the heavy-hitting topics, especially as they relate to women. Her first novel covered child kidnappings, predation on women, and sexism in the police force. This novel tackles sex trafficking, abuse to women, assault, and underage porn issues as well as a critical commentary on state of immigration affairs, detainment facilities, and abuse of the system. I love that the author goes there and states the facts—the writing doesn't preach (it's not frilly enough to do that, it's very plot point to plot point), but it does lay it out for us to take in.


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