Joseph Souza writes another winning novel.

Need to Find You by Joseph Souza

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.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.