Title:	Now That She’s Gone
	Author:	Gregg Olsen
	Published:	2015, Pinnacle
	No. of Pages:	320
	Cover Price:	$8.99 Paperback, $7.99 Kindle

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Now That She’s Gone is the second installment in the Waterman & Stark thriller series by bestselling author Gregg Olsen. The story opens as the prison warden, Janie Thomas, prepares to leave with serial killer, Brenda Nevins, who is an evil, cruel, narcissistic master manipulator. Once on the outside, Brenda forces Janie to do her bidding, while she murders and manipulates. Kendall Stark, a detective, and Birdie Waterman, the medical examiner are working to find Brenda before she kills again, and also get mixed up in the case of a teenager who vanished four years prior and whose case was poorly investigated. Enter a TV Psychic, Pandora, who is the star of a fledgling show that Kendall’s boss forces her to be on. Pandora will do anything for ratings, and in convincing families who have murdered or missing loved ones to be on the show, is wreaking havoc with their lives. Pandora is almost as manipulative and narcissistic as Nevins.

The story has dozens of twists and turns regarding both of the plots (Nevins escape and crime spree and the missing teenager), and both impact the main characters. Unfortunately, Stark is having problems in her marriage, and is under extra pressure. Throughout most of the book, she is unaware that Nevins is planning to take revenge on her and Waterman, which raises the suspense level even higher.

While the book is difficult to put down and the story is fascinating, there are some problems. Some of the issues leave the reader hanging, especially the fact that Pandora is dishonest, evil, and manipulative, and there doesn’t seem to be any justice for those who lives she’s ruined. Some of the characters, while interesting, seem a bit flat, and don’t appear to be real. Others, like Nevins and Pandora, are so well characterized that they not only seem real, but they resemble people who have been introduced through the media or that reside in our neighborhoods and are very believable; these “bad guys” upstage the main characters, Stark and Waterman.

The ending leaves readers hanging – not a bad thing, since this opens up the opportunity to read the next book in the series. However, some of the events should have had closure. It is often disappointing to readers when bad guys aren’t punished, and in this book, it seems that there are more than usual who aren’t.

All told, this is a fascinating novel, albeit the issues discussed, and hopefully the next installment will clear up some issues and not leave readers hanging.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

This book may be purchased at Amazon:
Now That She's Gone (A Waterman & Stark Thriller), paperback
Now That She's Gone (A Waterman & Stark Thriller), Kindle