The Forgotten Girls by Alexa Steele

Going through the books on my kindle that I haven't read yet (regular readers of my blog will know that I had over 600 books, and am now down to around 500) I decided to read this one yet, not knowing anything about it other than the title.  As has been known to happen on more than one occasion, ahem, I got hooked and ended up buying the rest of the series...

I will insert a Trigger Warning here: the main character of the books works for the Sexual Victims Unit - as such, the theme of these books is sexual violence against girls and women.

The blurb for The Forgotten Girls says:

In an elite suburb of New York City, girls are dying. That doesn’t happen in Greenvale, with its immaculate lawns, exclusive yacht clubs and multi-million dollar mansions. But behind its perfect façade, its trimmed hedges and luxury cars, a darkness lies. Girls, dependent on Adderall, outmaneuver each other to get into top colleges, while the mothers’ need to live vicariously only makes it worse.
Bella DeFranco is one of the Bronx’s top SVU detectives. At only 37, she disarms everyone with her stunning good looks, yet she is as tough as most men—and a lot smarter, too. Yet when is summoned to Greenvale, she finds herself getting lost in a case that even she can’t comprehend. She stumbles into a land of secrets, a place where husbands hide their pasts from their wives, where friends are not what they seem, and where no one wants to know too much. As she digs deeper into layers of suburban dysfunction, she comes to learn that, behind all the fake smiles, there is a subtle violence--rivaling even her crime-ridden streets of the Bronx.
With a killer on the loose, time running out, and a new partner who never recovered from his washed-up alcoholic days, the odds are stacked against Bella. She is determined, though, to save these girls, whatever the cost. Yet as she gets close, the depth of psychosis she discovers shocks even her….

When I read this book, I immediately related to Bella - not least because I also have stunning good looks and am smarter than most men...  No, what I liked was her determination, drive and ambition.  She squirrels away, determine to find the truth and bring justice for the girls.

In the second and third books of the series, the investigations are stand-alone but the character of Bella and her partner Mack develop. You learn that something happened to Bella in her childhood that is the reason why she works so hard for the SVU, but it doesn't go into details.

I read the whole series in less than a week, it was that riveting.  Alexa Steele really knows how to pull you into a story.  You enter their world and get caught up into the lives of the rich and exclusive, and the seedy and violent dark side.  At the end of the 3rd book, it does say that there will be a 4th book at some point. I hope it's soon!