Sinister - Jana DeLeon

Summary:

Street kids are disappearing, but how do you report that to the police when, from their standpoint, the missing people didn’t exist to begin with? Hustle is certain that something bad has happened to his friend Jinx, and the only person he can turn to for help is private investigator Shaye Archer. 

Because Hustle helped the young PI while she was investigating her first case, Shaye has already formed an opinion as to his character and believes he’s telling the truth. As she digs deeper into Jinx’s disappearance, she discovers that Hustle’s friend isn’t the only one missing. As a frightening pattern emerges, Shaye wonders if she can find the missing kids…before it’s too late. 

Summary from goodreads.com

My Review:

Holy Moly…ok. This is the second book in the Shaye Archer series by Jana DeLeon. I was not completely sold on this series when I read the first installment, Malevolent. Now, I love, love, love, a good detective story. I am Alex Cross’ number one fan and adore the girls of the Women’s Murder Club. Although the story was a pretty entertaining one, it just seemed like the plot of Malevolent and the characters were all over the place. I kind of like it when the bad guys are right under our noses the whole time and with Malevolent, I felt that we didn’t have enough time with our crazy, psycho, cross-dressing killer. It was kind of like…”Surprise, here is the murderer…some random person that we hardly even talked about in the story.” But, it was a page turner because I can hardly ever wait for the grand finale of any book. The great thing about the Shaye Archer series is that each book ends with a shocking piece of the, who is Shaye Archer, puzzle. And the ending of Sinister, Book #2, completely blew me away!

Throughout the story, Shaye is searching for missing homeless kids. They are, one by one, being sold into an underground ring for God knows what. In this second book, Ms. DeLeon has gotten the hang of the character development and we really get to know who we are working with. I think it just takes me awhile to get to know Shaye and Detective Jackson enough to care whether they live or not. Not to mention the fact that kids are going missing. Let’s just say by book two, I was completely invested. So, by then end of the story, Shaye and Jackson save the kids only to find out that the underground baby selling ring has been going on for at least twenty years. And here is the kicker…Shaye was one of the sold babies!!!! I know, I know!!! Book #3, here I come!