Apparently, I am really bad at determining if a book is part of a series just from reading the blurb on the back. For instance, I had no clue that Right Behind You was the seventh of eight novels written by Lisa Gardener to feature the characters Quincy and Rainie.
No matter though, as that is the beauty of these type of books. Gardener provides just enough background information to not make the past confusing and I’m onboard with the present almost instantly. Really, her introduction of these characters is how anyone would introduce new characters in a book, but these once just happen to have some history. Throughout the story, I didn’t find that I needed the nitty-gritty details for any further clarity. I could tell with just what was on this novel’s pages what our main characters were like. Though I will say, this novel definitely has me interested in checking out other works with these characters.
In this particular story, I think more of the focus is actually on Quincy and Rainie almost adopted daughter, Sharla. She is a young teen that came to the pair by way of the foster care system, but they found that they really do have a lot in common with Sharla. As well as a lot of love. In this novel, we learn more about Sharla’s past, and I have no clue if those details were delved into at all in prior works. Sharla grew up in a home with her older brother, Telly Ray Nash, and their abusive and drug-addled parents. When Sharla was just five, Telly took it upon himself to kill their father with a baseball bat after their mother was stabbed and it looked like they were next.
Since that time, Sharla hasn’t seen or come into contact with her brother, but she is still both mentally and physically scared from the incident. In an almost fugue state, Telly didn’t just bash their father’s brains in, he also shattered Sharla’s arm. All of these traumas that Sharla has endured makes it really hard for her to connect with people, but she’s pretty darn sure she loves her soon-to-be parents. They, too share traumas from their jobs in law enforcement, so there is a mutual understanding there. They know when to push and when to let Sharla process. It probably also helps that they got her a retired police dog, Luka.
Sharla’s past comes hurtling back at her though when it’s discovered that Telly is on a killing spree. Everyone and their brother is involved in the search and takedown of Telly, but luckily Quincy, Rainie, and Sherriff Shelley Atkins think there is more to the story. And boy is there ever! Telly hasn’t had the best luck in life, and just when he’s found some, things go really sideways this time. On the brink of adulthood and aging out of the foster system, he’s just trying to get by, but his past is merging with his present and he just wants to see his baby sister one more time before he might not be able to anymore. Let me tell you what, the twists and turns this novel took were really fun! I would absolutely love to see this as a television series if they could manage to do it right (I’m looking disappointedly at you, Big Sky).
All in all, this was a really satisfying read. I had my doubts at the start, but things started getting juicy really early on and just kept ramping up from there. It also helped that we got a bunch of different perspectives in this story to spice things up and provide more information. I look forward to checking out more stories from this series!