Husband Missing by Lisa Regan (Detective Josie Quinn #22) - August 2026 > Likes and Comments

Fear prickles her skin. “Noah?” Photos and trinkets from their simple but perfect life together litter the carpet. The coffee table is cracked, blood along its edges. She should be taking in details, but her heart is racing too fast. A strangled cry works its way from Josie’s chest. Where is her husband?

Detective Josie Quinn’s world shatters when she returns home to find her house ransacked, and her husband, Noah, missing. When she kissed him goodbye hours earlier, called to the discovery of a woman’s body at a protest, they were putting the finishing touches to a nursery for their first adopted child. But now the house is empty, Noah’s bloodied handprints trailing the walls.

Every fiber of Josie’s being screams to investigate. But her team warn her to keep her distance as they follow a connection to a recent robbery in Denton. But Josie can’t quiet the voice telling her the handprints Noah left are leading her somewhere, and the trail ends at an upturned box of her long-dead abusive mother’s faded photos, jewelry, a lock of hair, and a few old newspaper clippings.

Beside herself with worry for Noah, and unexpectedly confronted by the trauma of her past, Josie throws herself into work. The woman’s body found during a demonstration outside a children’s hospital belongs to Gina Phelan, daughter of the powerful and influential Phelan family. Trawling the CCTV is a welcome distraction, but everything changes the moment fingerprints from the knife that wounded Gina match to prints found in Josie’s own home.

Her head spinning as the two cases collide, Josie’s only option is to delve into the life of the monster who terrorized her as a child. The key to everything is hidden in the box of her mother’s mementoes. But is Josie strong enough and fast enough to find it in time? And at what devastating cost to those she loves most?

Book Discussion

The matching fingerprints are a sharp way to collapse the professional case and Josie’s private crisis into one problem. Bringing the mother’s mementos into it also makes this feel personal in a way a standard missing-person plot would not.

This is one of my favorites of the series!

I am a few books behind in this series; hoping to catch up soon.

Charlene wrote: "I am a few books behind in this series; hoping to catch up soon."

I'm with you, Charlene. My plan this month is to get caught up on this series.

I'm still trying to get caught up. I don't think I want to read another book with Josie's family in danger, especially Noah. I may put this off a little longer.

Repeated family-in-danger plots can create fatigue precisely because the reader still cares; the threat begins to feel less like escalation and more like the series using the same emotional lever again. Is your hesitation mainly about fearing for Noah, or about wanting Josie to face a different kind of pressure this time?

Vera wrote: "Is your hesitation mainly about fearing for Noah, or about wanting Josie to face a different kind of pressure this time? .."

Both. I'm fairly confident that Noah will end up OK. Josie needs a non-family or friend pressure.

Sharon wrote: "Both. I'm fairly confident that Noah will end up OK. Josie needs a non-family or friend pressure."

Then the fresher test may be professional rather than personal: a case that threatens Josie's judgment, authority, or reputation instead of putting another loved one in the crosshairs. If Noah feels predictably safe, shifting the risk onto a choice only Josie can make could restore uncertainty. What kind of non-family pressure would feel genuinely new to you?