Louisa Luna Books In Order

Publication Order of Alice Vega Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Louisa Luna is a literary fiction, thriller and mystery author from San Francisco. She is best known for writing the Alice Vega series of novels that she debuted with “Two Girls Down” that was first published in 2018. Luna’s story to publication was a long one since it started when she was in her twenties. As a budding twenty-something year old, she published three fiction works in the modern noir genre. Her first novel did okay but the second and third were not as successful. Given her initial struggles, she lost her confidence in her abilities and did not write for a while. Slowly but surely, she started writing again and in 2012 she published her debut in the Alice Vega series “Two Girls Down.” The novel took three years to write since she was now a mother and had a full-time job. While she looks back to her initial three failures, she believes the Vega series is a better representation of her abilities as an author. Her other novels include “Serious As A Heart Attack,” “Crooked” and “Brave New Girl.” She currently lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn.

Just like with many of her contemporaries, Louisa Luna models her “Alice Vega” series on the classics. Similar to the way Jack Reacher had Frances Neagley, Sherlock Holmes had Watson and Don Quixote had Sancho, her lead character Vega finds the helper in Max Caplan. Like with the classics, there is a sharp and fast repartee between the lead Vega and Caplan that shows that two heads are more effective than one. Luna thus draws a gripping storyline of primal terror led by two fine characters. She drops a body here and a clue there at just the right time to pitch the reader between alarm and repose. Her novels have their fair share of low lives and ne’er do wells as Luna is a master at character portrayals, offering a window into brooding minds where her readers can smell, feel and see the characters. She prefers that her leads do things the old fashioned way and hence Vega and Cap pound the streets following all the clue and leads. They intimidate, seduce, deduce and alter their approach depending on the situation. She also evokes images, using brisk dialogue, asides, phrases and scenes that show a writer that has mastered her craft. Luna writes characters we want to spit out or eat up, pace and suspense, good old prose and a story full of humanity, high drama and a hint of sentimentality.

As a child, Louisa Luna always felt something terrifying and beautiful about life. As such, when she started writing her first novel it was all about laying her deepest fears on the page which made it therapeutic in some way. Of course, she also wanted to tell a story that had a strong female protagonist and unforgettable characters. She drew a lot form her imagination to begin with and then read from books about missing children and persons which were deeply disturbing, sad and harrowing stories. The grief of the family and parents of missing children brings out the themes of fear, grief and pain that she writes about. Most of her research was done by reading novels such as Richard Lloyd Parry’s “People Who Eat Darkness,” Carole Moore’s “The Last Place You’d Look,” and Joe Mathews and “Les Standiford’s Bringing Adam Home.”

In Two Girls Down, two girls disappear from the car while their mother is shopping in a Kmart, the distraught family gets the help of Alice Vega to try to find the girls. The local police department does not have the resources having been stripped of resources by budget cuts and the fight against a growing meth epidemic. Vega teams up with Max Caplan a disgraced police officer who is trying to move on from the scandal that forced him out of the police force. But Vega needs him for the investigation and will do anything to get his help. They have very little information to go on but are determined to do everything in their power to comb through and untangle the false leads, lies and complex relationships. They have to do this even as time is clearly running out and they are in danger of losing the girls forever.

Louisa Luna’s second novel The Janes is an electric novel of intriguing mystery about sex trafficking and immigration. In the suburbs of San Diego, two women are found dead killed by unknown people. The bodies have no ID, no name and apparently, no one is looking for them. The FBI and the police believe there may be human trafficking involved and hence reach out to private investigator Alice Vega. Vega is known as an expert in finding missing persons and will be instrumental in tracking down and rescuing the missing girls. She is a powerful woman whose intellect is only matched by her determination. Teaming up with her favorite ex-cop Caplan, they are going to unravel the mystery of the Janes. But as it seems as if they are making headway, another layer of corruption and violence places their lives in a lot more danger.