Book Review

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner #BookReview #CornerstoneDigital #NetGalley #4.5*

From the #1 global bestselling author of WHEN YOU SEE ME

‘Lisa Gardner has always been one of my favourite writers, and this time she truly hits it out of the park. Frankie Elkin is a heroine for the ages, a fierce female Shane who’s out to save the world – one missing person at a time.’ TESS GERRITSEN
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A gripping thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgotten.

Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman with more regrets than belongings who spends her life doing what no one else will: searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for.

When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.

A new case brings Frankie to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier.

Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim’s wary family tells Frankie she’s on her own. And she soon learns she’s asking questions someone doesn’t want answered.

But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing will be her …


‘To read Lisa Gardner is to put yourself in the hands of a master storyteller. In BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED, she gives us a crackling mystery, gritty atmosphere and an unforgettable heroine.’ RILEY SAGER, New York Times bestselling author of Home Before Dark

A Thrilling Read!

I don’t tend to read a lot of missing person type novels as they can be quite distressing, but couldn’t pass up the chance of Lisa Gardner’s latest book – and it is a cracking read!

Frankie Ellon is a bit of a nomad; she owns very little and travels around to wherever there are unsolved missing person cases – ones that are no longer being worked on although there is no satisfactory resolution. It’s something she’s good at, so she travels around to wherever she feels she is needed to help families find closure. This is how this slight, white woman finds herself in a rough, mainly black, area of Boston where a teenage girl disappeared eleven months ago and her family have been left in limbo. Frankie seeks no fame, fortune or notoriety; only to put matters to rest – one way or the other. As she begins to dig deeper, someone out there doesn’t like Frankie’s presence.

This is an author who is always worth reading; even though I couldn’t see where things were heading at the beginning, nothing would have stopped me from continuing and before long I was completely engaged in an exciting tale. People go missing all the time; we hear about them but rarely discover the whole truth. The characters are skilfully crafted and fully rounded with a wide range of likeable and unlikeable traits. Frankie herself is quite fearless – like her roommate – and she is both tenacious and admirable. I can see why she’s so slim – she never stops! The story plays out beautifully with several moments of breath-holding and hearing my hammering pulse! With everything neatly tied off by the end, this is a thrilling novel and one I’m happy to give 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Tags: crime thriller

New York Times #1 bestselling crime novelist Lisa Gardner began her career in food service, but after catching her hair on fire numerous times, she took the hint and focused on writing instead. A self-described research junkie, she has parlayed her interest in police procedure, criminal minds and twisted plots into a streak of bestselling suspense novels. Her 2010 novel, THE NEIGHBOR, won Best Thriller from the International Thriller Writers. Most recently, she was honored with the Silver Bullet Award for her work with at-risk children and homeless animals. Lisa loves to hike, travel the world, and yes, read, read, read!

Readers are invited to enter the annual “Kill a Friend, Maim a Mate” Sweepstakes, where they can nominate the person of their choice to die in Lisa’s latest novel. Readers have nominated themselves, spouses, bosses. It’s cheaper than therapy and twice as much fun! For more details, visit Lisa’s website.

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