Vera Kelly: Lost and Found

The Vera Kelly Series, Book 3

By: Rosalie Knecht

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Everyone’s favorite sleuth―Vera Kelly―is back and put to the test as she searches for her missing girlfriend.

It’s spring 1971 and Vera Kelly and her girlfriend, Max, leave their cozy Brooklyn apartment for an emergency visit to Max’s estranged family in Los Angeles. Max’s parents are divorcing—her father is already engaged to a much younger woman and under the sway of an occultist charlatan; her mother has left their estate in a hurry with no indication of return. Max, who hasn’t seen her family since they threw her out at the age of twenty-one, prepares for the trip with equal parts dread and anger.

Upon arriving, Vera is shocked by the size and extravagance of the Comstock estate—the sprawling, manicured landscape; expansive and ornate buildings; and garages full of luxury cars reveal a privileged upbringing that, up until this point, Max had only hinted at—while Max attempts to navigate her father, who is hostile and controlling, and the occultist, St. James, who is charming but appears to be siphoning family money. Tensions boil over at dinner when Max threatens to alert her mother—and her mother’s lawyers—to St. James and her father’s plans using marital assets. The next morning, when Vera wakes up, Max is gone.

In Vera Kelly: Lost and Found, Rosalie Knecht gives Vera her highest-stake case yet, as Vera quickly puts her private detective skills to good use and tracks a trail of breadcrumbs across southern California to find her missing girlfriend. She travels first to a film set in Santa Ynez and, ultimately, to a most unlikely destination where Vera has to decide how much she is willing to commit to save the woman she loves.

©2022 Rosalie Knecht (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Poignant

This is an unexpectedly poignant addition to this series. It still had elements of Vera the Spy

Marvelous storytelling and narration

I adore this trilogy and this final installment had me riveted. You could read it without the others, but having spent two other books with Vera, I came in invested in this character. And — trusting Knecht’s skill in creating immersive atmosphere and compelling characters. Incredible deftness with detail — and masterful pacing. I cannot recommend these books highly enough and I hope they take off the way they deserve. If you need a comparison — the literary quality is on par with Tana French. But Knecht is a writer all her own. She’s created a special body of work with these books. Elisabeth Rodgers is a glorious narrator — cannot imagine a more perfect Vera. Rodgers is integral to my experience of these books.

Not worth

Really not that great - not worth the read. I spent half of the time asking myself why I’m still listening to this book.