From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a propulsive 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, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she 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 her 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 could be her.
A recovering alcoholic trades one addiction for another when she becomes the unlikely savior for missing minorities.
In Lisa Gardner’s latest—BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED—we meet Frankie Elkin, whose regrets weigh more heavily than the bag she carries from place to place, called to find those the world has forgotten. She’s an ordinary civilian who seeks no praise or compensation when she commits to find those who’ve vanished, those police may have relegated to folders stacked cold and abandoned.
Elkin’s newest case takes her to the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston—an immigrant community with a rough reputation comprised of Haitians, Hispanics, African Americans and other minorities. Nearly a year ago, Haitian teenager Angelique Badeau disappeared from her high school, leaving her family devastated and without viable leads from police.
The detectives aren’t happy to see her, the family is skeptical, and soon, it becomes perilously clear her probing isn’t welcome by many in the community. But she pushes and pushes, until before too long, she upends everything Boston PD knew about the case, and uncovers unsettling truths others worked hard to hide. Frankie is on the brink of unraveling something far more sinister than expected and she finds herself in danger of being the next girl to disappear.
Gardner’s latest drew me in from the start with compelling characters, fascinating sleuthing, and a hold-no-punches story steeped in retable struggles and well-known demons. Frankie Elkin is a standout heroine—flawed and unflinching with a dogged determination to help those who may not have the recourse to help themselves. She had a Flora-esque quality to her (which I of course, loved) and hope we see more of her in books to come.
But no doubt, Gardner once again delivers a taut, propulsive thriller that’s exceptional in every way.
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