… Where’s Billie?’ writing is first-rate
A debut mystery set in Minneapolis involves a sleazy pimp who recruits teenage girls at the mall, and an intrepid newspaper reporter determined to crack the case.
As bad guys go, the guy in “Where’s Billie?” is among the sleaziest.
He’s a seemingly respectable man with a responsible job who meets teenage girls at the mall, offers to buy them clothes and eventually lures them into prostitution. Reporter Skeeter Hughes sets out to bust him, and her perseverance makes this debut by Minneapolis writer Judith Yates Borger (Nodin Press, 247 pages, $15.95) a page-turner.
The novel, set in Minneapolis, is the first in a planned series featuring Hughes, a reporter for the Minneapolis Citizen. She has two daughters, ages 11 and 14, and she’s married to a reporter for the St. Paul Courier.
When a distraught woman contacts the paper asking for help in locating her missing daughter, 18-year-old Billie, Hughes is told to ch …
