45. Throwaway Jane - Scott William Carter

#1 Karen Pantelli

listened on Libby
314 pgs.

2020
Adult Mystery
Finished 5/19/24
Goodreads rating: 4.32
My rating: 4.25
Setting: Contemporary Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix

My comments: Karen Pantelli has become a drifter.  Three years after leaving the FBI with emotional scars, she finds herself busing in a bar in Denver.  This is where the wild ride begins.  She rescues a 13 year-old girls who seems terrified and won't speak, and Karen is framed to be a wanted killer.  So she and the girl, who calls herself Jane, are on the run.  They end up in Las Vegas where the story more-or-less cumulates.  Karen is from Tucson and is very protective of her bipolar sister who now lives in Phoenix with her two daughters, and their relationship comes into play in the story as well.  Very easy to listen to, good narration, good story.

Goodreads synopsis:  Former FBI agent Karen Pantelli lives by a simple philosophy: never, ever care. Three years after a tragic mistake ends her once-stellar career, she drifts from one dead-end job to another, quickly moving on when she finds herself getting too attached. A new city. A new life. A new way of forgetting and being forgotten.

Until one chilly night behind a seedy bar, when a frightened girl leaps out of the back of a speeding van.

As they end up on the run in a thrilling chase that spans half the country, Karen soon realizes it's much easier to say you don't care than to actually mean it. And that unlocking the secrets in this girl's extraordinary mind might not only save both of them, but bring down one of the most sinister organizations the world has ever known.