Last Girl Gone

April 30, 2018
The journalism career of Laura Chambers, the star of Hetherton’s promising debut and series launch, was off to a good start when she landed at the Boston Globe. But then an exclusive story blew up, and she was spectacularly fired. Now she’s back home in Hillsborough, N.C., where she writes “small-town” stories for the Hillsborough Gazette, wonders if her career will ever rebound, and lives with her toxic mother in the farmhouse where she was raised. Laura’s coverage of a 10-year-old girl’s murder is the kind of story she can turn into national news, especially when a second girl, who may be a victim of the same killer, goes missing. Although that story gets hijacked by fellow reporter Colin Smythe, Laura proves her mettle to FBI special agent Tim Timinski, who refers her to unsolved cases from 30 years earlier also involving missing girls. Laura’s work with now-retired sheriff Donald Rodgers gives the plot heft and illustrates how sharp investigators span generations. Despite the occasional cliché, Hetherton delivers a realistic look at contemporary newsroom culture that bodes well for future installments. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency.

June 1, 2018

Fired from her job as an investigative reporter at a Boston newspaper, Laura Chambers reluctantly takes a position at the local paper in her hometown of Hillsborough, NC. The story of a missing ten-year-old local girl found dead could be her ticket out, but Laura's competing with the mayor's son for newspaper space, sleeping with a source in the sheriff's department, and living with her verbally abusive mother. Then an FBI agent pushes her to look into a 30-year-old cold case involving other missing ten-year-old girls. Agent Timiniski refers to Laura as tenacious but naïve. Those traits drive her to find a killer, making her a target for ridicule--and attracting the attention of a murderer. Her investigative efforts intensify in a shocking finale. VERDICT The socially awkward but tenacious Laura, determined to succeed and overcome her past failures, is a memorable protagonist in this compelling debut mystery. Fans of James Ziskin's Ellie Stone will welcome this ambitious investigative reporter.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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