Girls Like Us

May 1, 2019
An FBI agent stumbles into a cesspool of police corruption and dead girls after the death of her father, a Long Island homicide detective. After scattering the ashes of her father, Martin, Nell Flynn heads to his South Fork home to sift through his possessions after a motorcycle crash took his life. Nell is on leave from her job in D.C. as a member of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit after she killed a member of the Russian Mafia in the line of duty and got a bullet to the shoulder for her trouble. Nell mourns her father but also looks forward to moving on and never looking back at a town that holds nothing but bad memories, including the brutal murder of her mother, Marisol, when she was only 7. But getting out of town soon isn't in the cards for Nell. When her old friend Lee Davis, a newly minted homicide detective, asks for her help solving a series of gruesome murders, Nell is intrigued. A young girl, shot, dismembered, and wrapped in burlap, has been found buried in a local park, and she bears a striking resemblance to a young Latina found the previous summer. Nell soon learns that a mansion near the burial is the site of lavish parties attended by Washington elites, where possibly underage girls are provided for entertainment. Nell's digging leads to young Latina escorts afraid to come forward for fear of deportation and the wrath of their pimp, who is working with some of the most powerful men in New York. When a local landscaper is arrested, Nell isn't convinced he's the killer, and disturbing secrets about the local police--even her father--are rising to the surface. Nell carries a palpable sadness and is still haunted by her mother's murder and her complicated relationship with her father. She has a vulnerable, empathetic core that will pull readers in, and Alger has a feel for small-town dynamics. The tension becomes nearly unbearable as Nell realizes she truly can't trust anyone. Readers can expect a few genuine surprises, and the light Alger shines on society's most vulnerable members is an important one. Melancholy and addictive.

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May 20, 2019
FBI agent Nell Flynn, the 28-year-old narrator of this propulsive thriller from Alger (The Banker’s Wife), returns home to Hampton Bays, N.Y., to bury her father, homicide detective Martin Flynn, who died at 52 in a motorcycle accident. Even though Nell, who’s on leave from the FBI after killing a member of the Russian mafia and taking a bullet in the shoulder, is anxious to settle his estate and turn her back on the town where her mother was murdered 21 years earlier, she agrees to help rookie homicide detective Lee Davis investigate the murders of two women. Nell and Lee soon uncover evidence pointing to police corruption, a local prostitution ring, and even her father, who was keeping his own secrets, but was he actually involved in victimizing vulnerable young women? As Nell seeks to unearth the truth in a small town determined to keep its secrets, she comes squarely into a killer’s crosshairs. Alger expertly ratchets up the suspense all the way to the explosive finale. Readers will hope to see more of tough, smart Nell. Author tour. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM.

June 7, 2019

Nell Flynn, an agent in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit in Washington, DC, is put on a short leave of absence after she is shot during an altercation with a dangerous Russian mobster. Soon thereafter, she is called home to Long Island, NY, following the death of her policeman father, Martin, whom she hadn't seen in over a decade. While tying up loose ends related to her father's fatal motorcycle accident, Nell is asked by a friend to consult on two local murder cases involving young Hispanic women, Ria Ruiz and Adriana Marques, who worked as escorts. Delving deeper into the grisly crime scenes and evidence, Nell begins to suspect a serial killer. She also constructs some disturbing theories that seem to link to her own past and leave her questioning her own beliefs. Nell's covert investigation uncovers deep-rooted secrets, corruption, and lies. The more she unearths, the more her safety is endangered. VERDICT This fast-paced psychological thriller by Alger (The Banker's Wife) will intrigue mystery readers as they shadow Nell's precarious quest for the truth at all costs, despite the consequences. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.]--Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2019
New York's Suffolk County Police Department, established in 1960 to address the rise in crime and traffic issues resulting from the dramatic growth of the 1950s, had a sterling reputation well into the new century, when things went bad in a big way. The conviction of Police Chief James Burke in 2016 on a civil rights charge exposed a crooked cop culture involved in sex trafficking, among other criminal endeavors. That history inspired this excellent crime novel in which FBI agent Nell Flynn joins the investigation of a string of grisly murders that leads her to suspect her own father, SCPD Homicide Detective Martin Flynn. She also begins to question her recollections of the night her mother was murdered. The victims in the case under investigation were sex workers, their severed remains bound up in burlap sacks, as were the real-life victims of Long Island's sadly unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. Lifelong New Yorker Alger describes the atmosphere of the area's parks and beaches well. She captures the social dynamics of Suffolk's eastern extremes perfectly. The first-person narrative is appropriately terse?Nell delivers a thorough report?but it occasionally surprises with a gripping depth, such as when she reflects on how unsettling a murder scene can be, about the darkness that clings to the air long after the killer has departed. Highly recommended, although perhaps not as a beach read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)