Joe Souza has a great imagination, and his new novel, Need To Find You, proves it. It’s so fast paced that you won’t want to set it aside. I did, after reading just a few chapters, because I had a busy schedule that week, and then I had to start over because I’d forgotten some of the characters and plot twists in a couple of days. You’re going to need to pay attention when you read this one!
There’s plenty of murder and mayhem in this novel, as there is in Joe’s first novel, The Reawakening, which I also enjoyed and which won the 2013 Maine Literary Award for Speculative Fiction. A Portland resident, Joe has written another potential award winner with his new novel.
Without giving too much away, I will tell you that the main character Yasmine ‘Yaz’ Weeks is on the run all through the book, after discovering a hidden memoir in a kidnapped girl’s cell phone. A scandal involving a famous writer is just part of the astonishing plot, with lots of corruption, twists and turns, and surprises along the way.
Whip Billings, an ex-cop and alcoholic, begins searching for Yaz, along with lots of bad guys including a high-ranking police officer who will be in trouble if the cell phone gets into the wrong hands, because it contains some damaging info and photos of him.
Bodies pile up, and one guy has a key part of his body cut off, and… well, I don’t want to tell you more, but after I restarted the book, I finished it in two days. Just couldn’t put it down. And I’ll bet you’ll do the same.