The Missing Diary by Tasmin Turner

Plunging readers into the gritty instability of a recovering war zone, The Missing Diary (Crime Scene Kosovo Book 1) by Tasmin Turner is a fast-paced legal drama that feels both timely and historically significant.

Lawyer Kit Chase eagerly leaps into a new position in Kosovo, unaware that the conflict there hasn’t exactly ended – just shifted battlefields into urban, cultural, criminal, and political realms. Learning to survive on the fly, while navigating the swirl of flirtation, insinuation, and intimidation all around her, Kit must nab a merciless mob boss who will stop at nothing to protect his ill-gotten empire.

Examining the gray areas of border-crossing investigations and the murky hierarchies that form in power vacuums, this is a character-driven mystery that dives into the halls of power and geopolitical clout. Both procedural and deeply personal, the book is unafraid to tackle delicate subjects, including gendered and sexual violence, political corruption, cultural prejudice, and the at-times deliberate hypocrisy of the international community, for a passionately written, unpredictable, and suspenseful thriller.

Turner does tend to tell readers about character emotions, rather than show them through dialogue, body language, or subtle narrative details, and there are additional issues with grammar structuring, misspelled words, inconsistent formality, and idiomatic descriptive choices. However, the story itself is unique in its geographical focus, with vitally important detail about the region that helps to make up for these errors, so fans of legal thrillers will not be disappointed by this original, conspiracy-fueled read.