Master investigator Alice Vega is back. When two Jane Does, young teenagers, are found dead near an underground tunnel to Mexico, officers at the San Diego Police Department call her and ask her to help identify the girls and find any more that may be out there. Both Janes have IUDs and appear to be victims of sex traffickers. And one of them was found with a piece of paper balled up in her hand. That piece of paper had two words on it: Alice Vega.
As Vega has become known as an expert at finding missing children, she takes the SDPD and the up on their job offer and gets to work trying to locate the place where the girls had been kept. With help from her sometimes partner, Max “Cap” Caplan, Vega follows the tiny threads from one witness to another, one source to the next. When the DEA also gets involved, their concerns about the drugs coming through those tunnels, Vega is unphased. She is single-minded in her investigation: find the girls and get them home.
But as they get closer to the truth, Vega and Cap find that not everyone in law enforcement is on their side. If they find the girls and the traffickers, they put themselves in danger. But if they don’t, then these scumbags get away with trafficking these girls, and murdering at least 2 of them. Vega and Cap will need to use all the tools at their disposal, and maybe depend on a couple of new friends, in order to get out alive themselves.
I adore the character of Alice Vega. She is tough and smart and doesn’t take anything from anyone. She can defend herself in almost fight (although sometimes it may take a pair of bolt cutters) and won’t stop until she rescues the kids she came for. I think her of an amalgam of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, and reading about her in action makes me believe in superheroes. And Cap is good too. Seriously, he is the perfect partner for Vega on these tough cases, from his past in law enforcement to his easygoing way of tuning in to a situation and reading a room. His warmth with people is a balance to Alice’s straightforward, take-no-prisoners approach to interrogation. They make a great team.
But. Sadly there is a but.
But Vega takes on really dark criminals in her investigations. Her skills are ideal for finding missing children. And any story where children have been taken by someone committing a crime is going to be painfully dark. These are the types of cases we read books to escape from. Vega and Cap make them bearable, but afterwards I’m needing some light, pointless reading or stupid comedy movies to stop hating humanity again. In other words, Vega is not for everyone. It takes guts to get through her stories. They’re worth it, but they are in no way easy.
So if you think you’ve got what it takes to read about girls being trafficked, abused, even tortured, then definitely reach for The Janes by Louisa Luna. It is a truly amazing book with an important story. And the characters will make you remember the best of humanity.
Galleys for The Janes were provided by Doubleday Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.