The Janes

LAST COUPLE STANDING

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meet our girl: seventeen, arrived here a year ago from a rough and dusty town in Chiapas, considered pretty by most standards because she is young, her face unmarked by scars or wrinkles, her body boasting the tender snap of fresh muscle. Our girl s brain, on the other hand, is at war with itself and others: with memories of her mother s worry and her father s pain, subtle with her own simmering meditations on sex and violence, with fear of all the men that come through the door with their eyes so stark and full of want it s like they ve eaten her up before they ve even selected her from underneath the butcher s glass.

Our girl walks in bare feet, unsure if she is dreaming. Her dreams these days are collisions, collages, bursts of fire and color that all start normally enough ­she is playing paper dolls with her sister on the porch under the umbrella with one panel missing, or fluffing up yellow rice in a pot right after it s done steaming. But then they turn; the dolls become scuttling cockroaches in her hands; the rice bowl fills with blood; her own teeth grow into blades and shred her tongue to streamers.

The house is divided, two floors: the ground floor, where she and the other girls sleep on towels side by side in the bedroom they share, and watch TV and wait in the living room; and there s downstairs full of boxes that pass for rooms ­no windows, no air. The working rooms.

Then there is the garage, which is separate from the house, but there are no cars inside. There is just a table and some machines and tools. Our girl hasn t been there yet but this is what she s heard. Only girls who cry and act stupid are taken there and our girl keeps her head down and does what she s supposed to do. She doesn t ask questions and doesn t make trouble, but she watches everything.

She avoids the bosses. Coyote Ben is easy to avoid because he comes and goes, although when he s around and there s no work he grabs the hair at the back

Louisa Luna is the author of Two Girls Down (featuring Vega and Cap) as well as Brave New Girl and Crooked. She was born and raised in San Francisco and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter.

"I am really into thrillers/mysteries because they are propulsive and go down easy, but I am especially into the ones where you get sucked into the personal lives of the crime solver. . . I would read Louisa Luna s grocery lists if she published them."  Sam Irby, Vulture 

"Lead character Alice Vega is sensational I want to see lots more of her."  Lee Child

PI Alice Vega is nothing less than an utterly compelling protagonist in her second case (after Two Girls Down, 2018), which resumes her remarkable partnership with fellow PI Max Caplan. . . A somewhat Shakespearean ending satisfies with triumphant women standing strong on a stage littered with battered villains.   Booklist, starred review 
 
Luna skillfully balances tragedy and humor throughout, via blood-pressure-raising fight scenes and stressful suspense, plus hints of romantic tension between Vega and Cap. She also offers a fascinating and disturbing look at how a criminal enterprise might work, pulling in various complex threads while crafting a story that s wholly believable and sad. The Janes is a superbly entertaining read, especially for readers who are already fans of the amazing Vega, whose Jack Reacher-esque sense of justice offers reassurance that, no matter how long it takes, no bad deed will go unpunished.   BookPage

The Janes has everything a plot ripped from the headlines and darkly twisted, explosive action, original characters, a dash of humor, and memorable settings. The story grabs the reader like a steel band of cold tension tightening with each new development. Investigators Alice Vega and Max Caplan deserve a long career with many more cases ahead.   Anne Hillerman, author of the New York Times best-selling Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito mysteries

The Janes is a timely, gripping thriller with an ending that will leave you utterly satisfied but wanting more of