ARC REVIEW After She's Gone by Lisa Jackson

My mother-in-law got me into Lisa Jackson books and one of my all time favorites fall back reread books is one of hers, unfortunately this is not going to be one of those books. I enjoyed the mystery it's what keep me reading the book instead of just DNFing it. The first half of it is whiny and a mishmash of other Lisa Jackson books updated. Cassie is annoying, her heart is in the right place but the poor me attitude got old real quick. It did get better when Trent showed up and took control of Cassie. The detective wasn't any better, it alluded to a hard past but she was just to annoying for me to care about her past. Allie evidently suffers from affluenza, she thinks everyone owes her something and nothing his her fault; she's a narcissistic bitch who got off lightly in the end. Trent is the only main character I liked.

After She's Gone is the third book in Lisa Jackson's Northwest series, it is a direct sequel to her 2005 release Deep Freeze which centers on actress Jenna Hughes and Sheriff Shane Carter. Cassie and Allie survived the events of the previous book only for it to screw up their lives. Cassie tries to escape by moving to L.A. to become an actress only to suck at it. Allie fought for her mother's attention and was jealous of all the attention Cassie got after the attack and growing up the daughter of Jenna Hughes she felt she was in constant competition with both her mother and sister. But after she moved to L.A. at Cassie's insistence Allie became famous. Cassie jealous of her sister's easy ability to act, gave it up and found screenwriting was more her thing. Because of Allie's easy start to stardom Cassie felt jealous and became even more self conscience with anything pertaining to Allie, especially when it came to Cassie's own husband.

There is an accident on set, the actress who was shot was originally supposed to be Allie. But now Allie is missing and Cassie had a nervous breakdown and admitted herself into a psychiatric hospital. But the longer Allie is gone the more worried Cassie gets and an ominous visit from an old timie nurse gives Cassie the kick in the butt she needs to find out what's going on. The longer Allie is gone the more police think Cassie did it especially after she is seen with an actress the night before she was murdered. Two dead, one almost paralyzed and one still MIA and Cassie is at the top of the suspect list. Thankfully she has her mother, stepfather, and Trent to lend a hand and support her in her need to find Allie. But what they discover is even more shocking than anything they had to deal with before.

Overall, I kept reading because the mystery was good, I was only half right in my initial guess. The characters, except for Trent, Jenna and Shawn, were all so shallow you just didn't care what happened to them.