Thanks to St Martin’s Press for providing me a free review copy. Don’t Look For Me by Wendy Walker is a suspenseful book start to finish. Molly Clarke, a mother, still grieving the death of her youngest child and dealing with the grief and anger of her children and husband that survived, pulls over, out of gas in the middle of a bad storm in an unfamiliar run down town. She gets out of the car, absently leaving her cellphone behind, and walks down the side of the road lost in her grief. She desperately thinks to herself that her family would be better off without her and imagines herself running away for a different life. Lost in despair she looks up to see a truck driving in her direction. She flags the truck down, waiving her hands and her purse in the air. A man and a young child pull over to offer a lift in the man’s truck. Immediately after accepting the ride, Molly feels uneasy. In the days that follow her family begin searching for her, but the evidence seems to suggest Molly ran away and the search grows cold. A large monetary award is offered for information that leads to finding Molly, dead or alive. Two weeks later, Molly’s daughter, Nicole, receives a call from a woman claiming to have seen her mother that night. This new information leads Nicole to return to the town where her mother disappeared on a hunt to find her. What follows is a suspenseful discovery of information bit by bit till the very end when it is revealed to the reader what actually happened the night Molly Clarke disappeared.

I really liked how the book switched back and forth between Molly Clarke’s part in the story from her point of view to Nicole’s slow discovery of what happened told in third person. I enjoyed guessing the identity of the man that stopped to pick up Molly the night she disappeared, and while there plenty of red herrings to throw me off, in the end my suspicions were correct, though nothing could have prepared me for the twist at the end.

This is a quick read you will not want to put down, and I would recommend it for even those that read thrillers all the time.

Will be posting my review to GR and my Bookstagram tomorrow. I’ve attached a link to my bookstagram post when I started reading it. I also posted my review to amazon, but couldn’t get a link to share my review here.

Wendy Walker always brings the best storylines and suspense when it comes to her books, but let me tell you, I had no idea what a treat this book would be for me! I’m talking edge-of-my-seat kind of treat.

I went into reading Don’t Look For Me with limited knowledge on what the synopsis was, which is the best way when it comes to thrillers. I loved the two POVs woven throughout, and my favorite thing about the entire book was just how compelling and surprising it was. I’ve seen so many great reviews for this book already, and didn’t want to be swayed, but this book was so freaking good!!

It’s still been on my mind even days later as I’m writing this review, and I definitely recommend this for your next heart-wrenching thriller!

*many thanks to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the physical and digital copy for review. All opinions are my own

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the review copy!

I loved this story so much. This plot was solid and storyline were done great and very easy to follow. I loved the characters and they were written very well! I will make sure to check out other works by Wendy Walker.

I highly recommend this read!

I flew through this mystery/thriller because it was so engrossing. I couldn’t wait to get to the end to find out who the kidnapper was, and to see how everything would be resolved, as I was left guessing throughout. The ending was a little bit far-fetched, but I still think it was worth the read if you enjoy this genre. Not to mention this cover totally drew me in!

Okay, so I picked this as my October #bookboombesties book kind of at the last minute because I forgot my month was coming up...

Then I read some awesome reviews and was so glad I picked it. Then I read it myself and OMG BELIEVE THE HYPE.

Ever since I watched Wendy Walker’s ’how to write a thriller Hollywood would love’ I have been in love. Her other works are great also, but for me this takes the cake!

I love that DLfM is centered around the internal struggles of both Molly and Nicole and of course mother-daughter relationships in general.

The setting and characters were creepy, but not super scary for me. It was unsettling, but not something that would have me jumping out of my skin.

As I was reading, I really had no idea who to trust or what to believe. When it came to the conclusion I remember thinking ‘how did I not see that!?’

Don’t Look for Me is an addictive page turner! I know I’ve said this a lot, but you plan to read just one more chapter and end up reading a good chunk of the book.

I’m sooooo excited for our discussion/author chat! There’s still some space if you want to be added.

GUYS GO READ THIS BOOK!

P.S. every time I eat an apple, I will think of this book.

How does a mother manage to survive the death of a child, especially when she believes she is at fault? When Molly Clarke disappears on the way home from her son’s football game her family and the police think she has just walked away from her life, especially when they discover the note she left behind. Then Molly’s daughter Nicole gets a tip about a sighting of her mother and returns to the area where she went missing. The twinned narratives of Molly and Nicole about Molly’s disappearance maintained a high level of suspense and kept me reading long past my bedtime. Wendy Walker writes so well about the mother-child bond and relates a moving and insightful portrait of grief and guilt. Another winner from Walker!

My review was posted on Goodreads on 10/7/20.

As someone who reads a lot of thrillers, I always appreciate when an author does something different. Don’t Look for Me is told from two points of view: Molly, who disappears one night on the way home from her son’s football game, and Nicole, Molly’s daughter who is determined to find out what really happened to her mother. Because of these two perspectives, the reader knows more than the characters do throughout the story. This sort of structure can be difficult to do well, but Wendy Walker manages it beautifully. Don’t Look For Me is engaging and kept me guessing throughout. Even when the truth is revealed, Walker takes it a step further with an ending that I didn’t see coming.

My only criticism is that the alternating perspectives felt a little uneven to me. I was way more interested in Molly’s chapters than Nicole’s, but I’m sure that is not the case for everyone.

I received a reviewer copy of Don't Look for Me by Wendy Walker i from the publisher from St. Martin's Press from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Loss of Child, Loss of Parent, Kidnapping.

What It’s About: Molly Clarke goes missing after driving home from her son's football game leaving a note saying she's chosen to disappear but her daughter doesn't believe it and sets out to look for it.

What I Loved: This book was complicated and it was exactly what I look for when I want a mystery. There's a small spooky town, grief wrapping itself around multiple people, and there are a ton of suspects and people who you can't tell if they are good or if it's a hidden agenda. The book kept me on my toes. It also felt like a really good book for the fall.

What I didn’t like so much: There seemed to be a bunch of random story lines that were insignificant and given too much detail so that I couldn't really keep track of what was story and what was distraction. Also I felt the ending was a bit too quickly wrapped up and not in a way I found super believable given the characters in some way.

Who Should Read It: People who have loved Wendy Walker's work before (this book is the same type of book as Emma in the Night). People who like complex mother-daughter relationships.

General Summary: A mother gone missing, a daughter convinced she wants to be found.

This was my favorite Wendy Walker book yet!

As soon as you pick up this book, you are thrown right into the drama. It was quick and addicting. I found myself reading this in two sittings. It was paced perfectly. I loved the alternating POV's between mother and daughter, the suspense and the creepy vibes from the villain

I enjoyed this fast paced thriller. It begins with a mother who is down on herself and becoming somewhat distant from her husband and kids. She has a son away at school and travels to watch him play sports and a daughter who has pulled away as well. Her husband will stay out all night at times because he can’t bear the tension and angst in the home. Several years previously, the mother, Mollie Clarke has experienced every parent’s worst fear, her youngest daughter is run over by a car and dies and she was the driver. No one really knows how devastating the loss of a child is unless they have experienced it. The most we can do is watch people we know endure this pain and how it is so difficult to get past with the rest of the family intact.
One day, Mollie is heading home from her son’s game when she runs out of gas on an isolated road and a hurricane is bearing down. Fortunately a truck is driving by and the man and his daughter are happy to help her. They try to drive her to a gas station but it is closed due to the weather. He takes her to his home and the twists and turns begin.
There are interesting characters and plot twists in this novel, mostly surprising although one major twist seemed obvious. I didn’t mind that at all. There is still plenty to keep the story going.
If you like thrillers with a family saga involved, this is a fun read.
Recommend, especially for spooky/mysterious vibes.

#Don'tLookforMe #NetGalley #StMartinsPress

REVIEW: Don’t Look For Me 🙅‍♀️👀 ⁠⠀
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What a ride! Don’t Look For Me is told through two perspectives--Molly Clarke and her daughter, Nicole. We know pretty early on that Clarke’s younger daughter Annie is dead. She’s understandably still grief-stricken. Her life seems to have kept unraveling from the point of her daughter’s death until where we meet her, out of gas on a lonely road in the middle of a hurricane-force storm. When a stranger offers her a ride, she graciously accepts, but soon fears she’s made a huge mistake.⁠⠀
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Her family is lead to believe she's just "walked away" after a note found at a nearby hotel that Molly apparently left behind.⁠ Nicole isn’t buying it. ⠀
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Nicole heads back to the small, near-abandoned town where her mom was last seen to chase down a new lead, but who can she really trust there?⁠⠀
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This book was filled with twists and turns and so much suspense and suspicion! Despite its twistiness, I never felt a sense of “whiplash” that can happen in a fast-paced thriller like this. I was so invested in the story that it was difficult to put down anytime I had to take a break. I felt its pull until the very end.⁠⠀
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Walker does a fantastic job of balancing that line of “just enough” information… where we’re not figuring out the “whodunit” early on or left with too many questions.⁠⠀
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There was ONE twist that I’m still a little on the fence about, but overall this book has all the best vibes you could want from a good thriller or suspense book. It has a lot of creepy vibes mixed in, so if you’re looking for some fun Halloween-ish reads to add to your list, give this one a look!⁠

This book was another hit for me with Wendy Walker! The twist was insane and the whole book just felt ominous! I will for SURE be recommending this to customers! I already have 3 in mind that I will be putting it aside for!

The absolute first thing I want to say about this book is that the big twist is amazing. I never saw it coming. I quite literally gasped out loud and put my hand over my mouth, the twist was just that good.
I wanted to make sure I said that first because the rest of the book can move a little slowly. This is a suspenseful read for sure, one that also has a lot of important things to say about families, mothers and daughters, the perception of women, and the heavy weight of guilt. But even though this book takes place over a short span of time, it can feel longer sometimes.

I was engaged throughout the whole story: Molly, the vanished mother, carrying the worst guilt a mother can bear; Nic, her daughter, struggling with her own guilt and attempts to fill her emptiness, while also attempting to find her mother; and the myriad other characters I won't mention for fear of giving anything away.

But this book took me longer to finish than I thought it would, and I think that's because it just moved at a slower pace. Again, this is not a bad thing in this instance, but I could see how it could be a deterent. I think the big twist packs even more of a punch because of this slower set up, because once that happens, everything starts happening, and my heart was in my throat and I could not put this book down.

I love a good thriller in October! There's something about the dark, cold nights and the anticipation of Halloween that makes me crave a scary story. The new Wendy Walker psychological thriller satisfied my craving.

She created a compelling book by presenting both the hunter and the hunted's narrative at the same time. The book starts with a woman breaking down on the side of the road near a small town in the middle of a rain storm, and she presents the story to the reader as it happens. As this is taking place, her 20-something daughter is telling the story from her point of view, as she goes to the desolate town to find out why her mother's car was abandoned and her mom has disappeared. In the process of telling the backstory, it is told that this woman accidentally killed her youngest daughter with her car while the older daughter watched. Both are dealing with serious mental issues as a result. So, Walker doesn't keep what happened a secret, but she does hold back some details that caused me to question where she was going with it. Hidden secrets in a small town are somewhat cliche in thrillers, but Walker uses a unique approach to keep the reader in suspense.

Both mother and daughter meet some shady people in this town, and I think I suspected each one of them of something sinister at some point over the course of the book. Eventually, I realized that BOTH of them are in danger of being hurt by someone in the town and they are racing against the clock to escape. I love stories like this because it keeps the tension dialed up and makes me want to keep turning pages. I don't think it will spoil anything to say that there is a child in the story with major creep factor! I got serious Stephen King vibes when she was involved.

Wendy Walker has crafted a perfectly dark, scary story with lots of twists and surprises. It is smart and well-written; perfect for lovers of crime fiction. I recommend this one!

Caveat: It took a long time for me to finish this book. If kidnapping and captivity is a trigger for you, skip it.

I really love Wendy Walker's writing and her last two books were impossible to put down. This book, however, was dreadful for me. The story is told from two points of view--one of which is the first person account by the kidnapped victim, Molly. The anticipation anxiety of Molly's fate as a captive was disconcerting but I quickly became annoyed with her repetitive thoughts and lack of depth. Her reactions to imprisonment were not what I expected and there were some holes in the plot that left me wondering how she got from one point to another.

The second POV is Molly's daughter Nic and her search for her mother. This was the part that kept me reading. There was a little mystery and intrigue as the search for her mother progressed but it was not the twisty, satisfying ending that I've come to expect from Wendy's writing. If I had to describe this book in one word it would be underwhelming. Nevertheless, I'm still a fan and look forward to see what the next book has in store.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for a free galley in exchange for my honest review. Don’t Look For Me is the twisty thriller that you won’t be able to put down this Fall. Molly’s life is crumbling around her as she struggles to forgive herself for an accident that took the life of her youngest daughter. When she goes missing during a storm, the police deem her disappearance as a “walk away” and believe she has chosen to leave her life behind and doesn’t want to be found. However, Molly’s eldest daughter Nicole refuses to accept this explanation and sets out to small town Hastings determined to find her mother. As Nicole begins to uncover the truth, she too finds herself in harm’s way. Perfectly paced, complex, and full of suspense, Wendy Walker will keep you up late at night, racing to the end.

On the anniversary of her youngest daughter's death, Molly Clarke doesn't make it home from her son's football game. Her car is found abandoned and there's a note at the casino hotel saying that she's left and doesn't want to be found. But her daughter Nicole is intent on finding her.

Don't Look For Me was a pageturner from the very beginning. Walker does a great job of telling both Molly and Nicole's stories. I had a few suspects in mind, but never guessed the twist.

Synopsis:
“In Wendy Walker’s thrilling novel Don’t Look for Me, the greatest risk isn’t running away. It’s running out of time.
One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life.
She doesn’t want to be found.
Or at least, that’s the story.
The car abandoned miles from home.
The note found at a nearby hotel.
The shattered family that couldn’t be put back together.
They called it a “walk away.”
It happens all the time.
Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over.
But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke?


Remember how I have a million NetGalley books to read? Well, now I can officially mark one off! Look at me go.



There is not a negative thing I can say about Dont Look for Me. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire read. The plot was so well done, going back and forth between mom (who was kidnapped, adultnapped?) and daughter (who was looking for her).

This was an excellent viewpoint on grief, loss, family tragedy. It showed how we shouldn’t give our trust too easily. How deep betrayal can truly go. Just when you think you know all of the scumbags, another one comes out of the woodwork.

10/10 recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

Don't Look for Me is an intriguing mystery that offers some great thrills and chills. Molly Clarke feels like her life is over and her family is falling apart after the death of her young daughter Annie. Placing the blame at her own feet even though the death was an accident, Molly struggles not to let her own self hatred permeate, but as she sees her daughter Nic's destructive behavior, son Evan's evasion, and her own husbands growing distance. On the way home from her son's college game she runs out of gas in the dying town of Hastings and wonders maybe everyone would be better off if she just walks away. Unfortunately, she accepts a ride that will forever change her life.

Overall, a solid read that I flew through. I wasn't positive about the direction the novel would take, which made it more enjoyable to read. However, a big issue I had was with the characters. I didn't feel like enough development occurred to differentiate one from another. All the men had essentially the same "voice" as did the women. Although the chapters alternated POV between the mother and her daughter Nic, there were times when the two sounded like the same person. The story was often more character driven than plot driven, so if you go in with that mindset I think you will quite enjoy the book.

This book was so interesting and honestly so scary. An abduction story? Gah my heart was in my stomach throughout the entirety of reading it. i Honestly didn't love how it ended and how the reveals played out. Loved the writing and how the book was crafted.