The Orchid Tattoo by Carla Damron ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

Georgia is a social worker who works at a high stress job in a hospital.  When she was younger, she heard voices and even though the voices have gotten quieter, they still talk to her when she's under stress.     In the middle of the night after a hectic work day, she finds out that her beloved sister is missing.  Peyton was her younger sister and Georgia had taken care of her for their entire lives.  Georgia knows that she has to find her sister so she starts out on quest of her own because the police don't seem to be making much progress.  As she calls her sisters friends and the university where she is working on a graduate degree, she finds that Peyton has been acting strange and been absent from her normal life for several weeks.  Georgia finds out that her thesis is on health care for migrant farm workers but as she finds more clues, she discovers that Peyton has been working with Kitten, a young girl who is being trafficked.  Did Peyton's questions in this area put her in grave danger?  Will Georgia be able to find her sister and if not, will she be able to continue her sister's work and help Kitten escape?

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

September 2022; Koehler Books; 978-1646637638
ebook, print (342 pages); psychological thriller

This story is told in alternating chapters by three main characters - Georgia, Kitten, and Lillian.  Georgia is trying to find her sister, Kitten is trying to get out of her horrific life and Lillian has worked for the bosses of the trafficking ring for years and hopes that she is important enough to them to keep herself alive.

My advice is to start reading this book when you have a lot of time because you aren't going to be able to put it down.  The characters are very written and the plot is fast and informative.  It's a disturbing book in many ways but it's also hopeful and really relevant to our current world.

The Orchid Tattoo is fast-paced and hard to put down.  The characters are so well written that it kept me turning pages to find out if they would escape from their horrible lives.  I found myself thinking about several of these characters even after  I finished the book because I'm aware that there are young people currently trapped in this lifestyle.  I know that this book will be difficult for some people to read but it's based on true facts of what is going on in our country (and all over the world) right now.  We need to understand and be informed so that we can do our best to stop this terrible crime.

NOTE:  This book has a content warning posted in the front:  This novel contains references to child (teen) abuse and sex trafficking.

Buy The Orchid Tattoo at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is two hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.  You can connect with her on Facebook.

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