“Modern dating. Let’s be honest. It sucks.” With this brief yet inciteful affirmation, Lisa Unger nicely sets the table for what you can expect in LAST GIRL GHOSTED.

Wren Greenwood doesn’t really go for the whole online dating scene --- in fact, it is only because of the constant prodding of her friend Jax that she’s even throwing herself out there this time. She creates an account on the dating site Torch and subjects herself to the impossible task of digging through the profiles of those who just want to hook up or are downright lying to find her potential soul mate.

"Lisa Unger drops enough tidbits and red herrings to keep the wheels turning for the armchair detective reader. LAST GIRL GHOSTED is so intricately plotted that this will be no easy task."

Wren sets up a date with a young man named Adam Harper, and he actually turns out to be even better than his meager profile and headshot would have indicated. She was already sold when she found out that he loves the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and she wants to learn more about him. When Wren shows up at the restaurant they had selected for their second date, she begins to get worried when 10 or more minutes go by and Adam is nowhere in sight. This is embarrassing enough since she is at an upscale establishment, but it is seemingly out of character for the person with whom she thought she was really hitting it off.

Wren is “Dear Birdie,” the host of a podcast that has acquired a nice following for those seeking mainly relationship advice. She never told Adam about her alter-ego, which is ironic as she would now make for an ideal caller to the program. Things take an even more surreal turn for Wren when she is approached by Bailey Kirk of the Turner and Ives Agency. He is an ex-detective and current private eye searching for the man who is calling himself Adam Harper. His client is the family of a young woman, Mia, who disappeared six months earlier while dating Adam. Down the rabbit hole we go!

Bailey continues to stay in contact with Wren, who is genuinely concerned and learns that Mia may have been just one in a series of missing young women who met Adam online. As for Wren’s situation, she has to wonder why he disappeared but caused her no harm. Knowing this is a Lisa Unger thriller, it will be just a matter of time before we get those answers, and they are sure to be doozies.

Each new lead brings Wren more unanswered questions. At one point, someone comments that she looks like she just saw a ghost, to which she internally responds, “I have. I have seen a ghost. I see her every time I look in the mirror.” During her search, Wren receives some cryptic messages from an unknown sender she suspects is Adam. One of the texts reads, “Don’t believe what he tells you about me. There are more layers to my truth than you can imagine.” This may be true, but the reality is that Mia is still missing and Wren needs to understand exactly who she has found herself mixed up with.

We learn about more young women who may have been involved with Adam. Wren knuckles under to the pressure she has placed on herself and decides to troll the dark web to find someone who might be able to trace the individual who has been sending her those texts. The book does an excellent job of using modern-day technology and applications and tying them into a psychological thriller that could have been directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Without giving anything away, I will simply state that before Wren can discover who and what Adam really is, she will have to look in the mirror and deal with her own past and secrets. Lisa Unger drops enough tidbits and red herrings to keep the wheels turning for the armchair detective reader. LAST GIRL GHOSTED is so intricately plotted that this will be no easy task.