The Middle Sister by Jesse Miles, Book 3 in the Jack Salvo Series

Miles, Jesse. 2019. The Middle Sister. ISBN 978-0-9904740-4-3 $8.99 USD 

Amazon Link: The Middle Sister

I have been a fan of the Jack Salvo series by Jesse Miles for quite some time. I read the second book, Church of Spilled Blood, a few years ago when it was a "read now" title on NetGalley, and was completely impressed that it was self-published since I had not read many indie authors up until then. I immediately bought and read the first book in the series, Dead Drop. They can each be read as stand-alones, as I didn't even realize I had read them out of order. You can read my reviews of both those books here:
https://kellywellread.blogspot.com/2017/01/church-of-spilled-blood-jesse-miles.html

I heard from the author a couple months ago that his third novel was close to being published and he graciously sent me a print copy to review. I was not disappointed in this addition to the series, though it was a slower read for me this time around. That may be because I have so many other reading commitments and had to put it aside briefly for a while. In any event, the main character, Jack Salvo, is just as entertaining as he was in the previous two books: a tenacious private eye who also teaches philosophy one night a week at a community college. His internal and external voice are always a pleasure to read, and he develops the other characters in this novel very well. 

Jack is hired by a wealthy family to locate one of three sisters who has gone missing (the titular "Middle Sister"), and finds himself on the trail of series of disreputable characters in his efforts to find out what happened to her. The author has done an amazing job, once again, in his description of the Los Angeles setting, and creates quite visual pictures in his writing. The plot unfolds gradually as Jack follows the clues, and the characters he meets, to solve this mystery; and the ending was completely unexpected, always a plus in my book (so to speak). I do feel the very end of the book was not quite as tightly resolved as I might have wanted to see, but it did not detract from my enjoyment of the story as a whole.

I would recommend this entire series from indie author Jesse Miles, and am still surprised that it hasn't been picked up by a major publisher. I could see it doing very well with those who enjoy the Nils Shapiro series by Matt Goldman (Gone to Dust) and the Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais.