Stolen things by R.H.Herron

A sensational crime, a missing teen, and a mother and daughter with no one to trust but themselves come together in this shocking debut thriller by R. H. Herron.

“Mama? Help me.”

Laurie Ahmadi has worked as a 911 police dispatcher in her quiet Northern California town for nearly two decades. She considers the department her family; her husband, Omid, is its first Arab American chief, and their teenaged daughter, Jojo, has grown up with the force. So when Laurie catches a 911 call and, to her horror, it’s Jojo, the whole department springs into action.

Jojo, drugged, disoriented, and in pain, doesn’t remember how she ended up at the home of Kevin Leeds, a pro football player famous for his on-the-field activism and his work with the CapB—“Citizens Against Police Brutality”—movement. She doesn’t know what happened to Kevin’s friend and trainer, whose beaten corpse is also discovered in the house. And she has no idea where her best friend Harper, who was with her earlier in the evening, could be.

But when Jojo begins to dive into Harper’s social media to look for clues to her whereabouts, Jojo uncovers a shocking secret that turns everything she knew about Harper—and the police department—on its head. With everything they thought they could rely on in question, Laurie and Jojo begin to realize that they can’t trust anyone to find Harper except themselves . . . and time is running out.

(From Goodreads synopsis)

My thoughts:
The book definitely starts strong. Laurie, a 911 dispatcher, gets a call from her teenage daughter Jojo, who woke up in a strange house, disoriented and most probably drugged and raped. A dead body of the house owner's friend is also discovered  in the next room, while Jojo's best friend Harper is missing.  Jojo doesn't remember much, but feels she needs to do everything possible to save her friend, and starts looking for possible clues in Harper's social media threads. She uncovers a terrible secret, which makes her realise she cannot trust anybody, and she and Laurie are on their own.
The book touches upon multiple sensitive issues: sexual assault trauma, police brutality, racism, corruption, homophobia. While I believe that it is important for a book to have a social message, other readers may find it a bit heavy-handed.
A well-written, exciting thriller with plenty of action and interesting characters.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Dutton for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.