Where Lost Girls Go by B.R. Spangler

 

Detective Casey White comes to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a few days to get away.  Her boss had insisted after her stress had caused her to almost shoot another policeman.  White had a tragedy in her past.  She had seen her two year old daughter kidnapped and the girl was never found.  Casey joined the police and specializes in lost and missing cases, always hoping to find the answers in her own daughter's case.

But this won't be a vacation.  Casey is driving down a back road when she sees a girl stumble onto the road.  She rushes her to the hospital where it is determined she had just given birth and that she had been buried alive.  At the same time, two girls were found on a deserted yacht, one dead and one overdosed and comatose.  Obviously, the area can use some of Casey's expertise.

With the help of a marine officer and one of the local force's IT experts, Casey discovers there are several cases going on.  Missing girls from years ago have been kept in the area and buried in the woods.  Meanwhile, girls from a local correction center are being auctioned off as sex slaves.  There are also hints that Casey's daughter has been seen in the area.  Can Casey solve the cases and find her daughter at long last?

This is the first in a series of eleven.  The action is fast and furious and White's own tragedy fuels her drive to help missing girls and their families reunite.  There are some unlikely elements such as girls being taken while on vacation with their families and the cases never related or investigated that much.  It is more likely that such a story would go nationwide and get state and federal resources.  Then the fact that these crimes, undetected for years, would all come to a crisis point within a week or so after Casey starts investigation.  But this is a first novel in the series and I'll definitely read more to see if things are tightened up in the next one.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.