Book & Audio Review: Count to Three by T. R. Ragan

Count to Three
Author: T. R. Ragan
Narrator: Karen Peakes
Publication: Thomas & Mercer (December 14, 2021); Brilliance Audio (December 14, 2021)
Length: 283 p.; 8 hours and 28 minutes

Description: For a private investigator on the trail of a missing girl, every second counts in a gripping thriller by New York Times bestselling author T.R. Ragan.

On her first day of kindergarten, five-year-old Tinsley disappeared without a trace

Five agonizing years later, her divorced mother, Dani Callahan, is a private investigator. She and Quinn Sullivan, a promising young assistant determined to prove herself, are devoted to helping others find missing loved ones. And for Dani, finding Tinsley is still a never-ending obsession

Their newest case is Ali Cross, a teenager who vanished off a Sacramento street while walking home. A troubled boy’s eyewitness testimony to Ali’s abduction provides their only clues. And as their search for Ali gets underway, new information about Tinsley’s disappearance begins to surface too

As their investigations lead down two twisting paths, disturbing secrets are revealed and new victims find themselves in mortal danger. Time is running out, and the hunt is only getting grimmer.

My Thoughts: Dani Callahan is a private investigator in Sacramento who got into her career because her five-year-old daughter Tinsley was abducted on her first day of kindergarten. She has been searching for her for the five years since Tinsley's disappearance. 

Quinn Sullivan, aged twenty-two, has been working with Dani for a while learning the business. She is searching for the mother who left one day and never returned. Quinn was fifteen and refuses to believe that her mother would have left her. 

Like Dani's case, Quinn doesn't have any leads to find out what happened to her mother. 

When a young girl named Ali Cross disappears, it is first believed that she ran away. But a witness - 12-year-old Ethan Grant - saw her thrown into the back of a white panel van. The police investigate but can't confirm Ethan's account. So Ethan decides to hire a PI on his own who will investigate what he saw. He chooses Dani Callahan,

As Quinn, Dani, and Ethan begin to unravel the clues that might lead to the identity of the kidnapper, we are shown what is happening to Ali at the hands of a man who is a psychopath. Those scenes were quite graphic and especially so in audio version.

Meanwhile, Dani has found a new string to tug in her investigation of her daughter's disappearance when a photo from the company picnic for her ex-husband's company which occurred just days before Tinsley disappeared shows her ex talking with a woman who looks a lot like Dani and another picture showing that same woman face-painting Tinsley. Tracking the woman down isn't easy. She was a temp worker and Dani soon learns that she was using an alias.

And Quinn and Ethan are busy trying to identify the van that Ali was thrown into. Then things get dangerous... Dani is attacked in her office, Ali's boyfriend is murdered, and Ethan is grabbed by the same psycho.

The story was packed with tension as the clues were gradually unraveled. I enjoyed the characters and found the plot engaging. The narrator did have a vocal quirk which got a little annoying as she audibly inhaled at the start of many sentences and paragraphs. Otherwise, the characters were distinct and the pacing well done.

Fans of thrillers will enjoy this story. 

Favorite Quote:

"Go ahead then--keep playing the role of victim, but all you're doing is giving the person that isn't even in your life the power to control you. You'll never be happy."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.