Before She Disappeared
A Novel
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4.2 • 1.8K Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this gripping stand-alone from thriller queen Lisa Gardner, the only thing more intense than a detective’s search for a kidnapped teenager is the truth she discovers about herself. Frankie’s job is finding lost Black and Indigenous women the police have given up on, but her search for a Haitian teen named Angel is hitting all kinds of walls. As Frankie’s deep dive into Angel’s secrets puts her on a collision course with her own painful past, Gardner sets up an impressively intricate mystery that explores some serious social themes. There's even a welcome dash of smoldering romance, as sparks fly between Frankie and a local police detective. Timely and gritty, Before She Disappeared is a prime example of why we always look forward to a Gardner read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Recovering alcoholic Frankie Elkin, the narrator of this outstanding crime novel from bestseller Gardner (When You See Me), has found purpose, if not peace, in channeling her addictive personality into finding missing women no one else bothers to search for. Newly arrived in Boston, Frankie sets out on the trail of 16-year-old Angelique Lovelie Badeau, who seems destined to beat the odds in her tough Haitian community. What would drive Angelique, a girl with such a bright future, to simply disappear one day? Frankie's search leads her through a thicket of gangs, traffickers, and institutional racism. The mystery's solution is a neat twist on the obvious dangers that might destroy a talented girl's dreams. Frankie, who describes herself as an "average middle-aged white woman," is a nuanced character whose unflinching honesty and lack of self-pity allows the reader to empathize, if not completely sympathize, with her struggles. And cat lovers are sure to fall for Piper, Frankie's equally dysfunctional feral companion. Gardner pulls no punches in this socially conscious standalone.
Customer Reviews
Before her disappearance
Intriguing story line, somewhat moody, but well developed characters. Once into it, want to keep reading one more page and hard to put down.
A good read
It was a good read. A little drawn out in parts but overall kept me going until I finished. I decided to start on the next one in the series
Trying too hard to be “woke”
I tried to give this book a chance even through the initial few chapters of realizing one of my favorite authors had obviously succombed to the woke ideologies but 70% through the book and I hustled can’t.