I haven't read anything by Wendy Walker before now, and this certainly will not be my last. This book led me on a twisty turny tale that kept me completely enthralled from the first page to the very last.

Since the tragic death of Molly Clarke's youngest child years ago, her life has not been the same. Her husband is disengaged and likely cheating, her children resent her, and she is desperate for love and affection from her family that appears to be non-forthcoming. So when she disappears in the middle of a terrible storm, the police rule it a "walk away" and the case is closed. But her eldest child Nicole, despite their complicated relationship, is convinced that her mother would not abandon her family. She sets out to find her mother, whether it's because walked away, or if she disappeared for more sinister reasons...

What was so special about this book was not only how thrilling and dark it was, but the incredible emotional depth Walker manages to portray through her pages. My heart ached for everyone in this story, and the mother-daughter relationship she weaved was absolutely gorgeous and so genuine. The relationship building and character building was impressive and natural. I felt like I was reading about a real family who experienced a horrible tragedy. I did not predict the ending, and was very pleased with how it all came together.

True 5/5. Would read again! Recommending it to my book club!! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you like intricate plots with lots of twists and turns this is the book for you. An accomplished writer with a good command of her storyline and characters the author keeps you guessing until the end.

I love when a book keeps me guessing, and this one sure did. Every time I thought I had it all figured out, the author threw more info at me that made me doubt myself. The twists and turns kept me from willingly putting down the book. This was a great thriller/mystery.

Molly is unappreciated.
She drives 8 hours to watch her sons football game and he cant even bother to say hi to her, at home she has a angry and often hateful daughter and a distant husband.
So when she disappears and asks her family not to look for her, the police are ready to put the case to bed.
But something doesn't sit right with her daughter who sets out to find the woman who doesn't want to be found.

The first chapter I thought for sure this book wouldn't be for me.
But... once it got going, it went. Fast.
I am so happy to report that I was blindsided.
Quite rare in this genre. But man, it happened, and it's a beautiful thing.

Thank you to NetGalley, Wendy Walker and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

WOW! This book was amazing!! The story is fast paced, well written and just overall exciting. I loved how the story was written from both Molly and Nicole's point of views, and I loved how creepy young Alice is.

Another home run from the very talented Wendy Walker!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
It is rare that I give a thriller 5 stars, but this one deserves it!!!!! Don't Look For Me by Wendy Walker is more than just a fast-paced, suspenseful, super twisty book, it is a story of forgiveness and a mother's love.
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Five years ago Molly and her family suffered an unimaginable tragedy when they lost their daughter Annie in a car accident caused by Molly. The relationships between Molly, her husband, and her other two children, Evan and Nicole, have become so estranged and filled with pain and guilt that Molly sometimes wants to leave this life. When she goes missing in a small town after a bad storm, Nicole can't accept the police's assumptions that her mom walked away from her family and life. Nicole is hanging on to her own guilt over the accident and decides to investigate. She uncovers secrets the town has been hiding that make her question if someone knows more about the situation then they are letting on.
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This is such a phenomenal read. It made my heart hurt and had me cheering hard for the characters. I was so invested in the journey these two flawed women were on. It comes out September 15th and you MUST READ IT!
Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the early copy!

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read and review this book. This is a good, quick mystery. Molly Clarke is feeling abandoned by her family, so she has the idea to escape from them. Unfortunately, things go terrible wrong. There's some suspense along the way, as well as the healing of family relationships.. I would recommend this story to all mystery lovers. It is well-written with a well constructed plot.

Could you walk away from your life and not leave a trace? Molly did, or did she? Her life has certainly been complicated. Her family is all sorts of messed up. But will anyone look for her? The book was a good one that held my interest. There were slow spots that didn't seem important until the end. And what an ending! It was an excellent ending. It will be awhile before I walk down the road alone. How about you?

While I likely won't remember this plot in years to come, as I read many, many thrillers, I still think this is worth the read as it had me turning pages and guessing the entire time.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: Don’t Look for Me was written by Wendy Walker and is set to be released on September 15, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press. It’s a mystery/thriller novel, which is Walker’s specialty; her previous psychological suspense novels have hit international bestseller lists. The tagline reads, “The greatest risk isn’t running away. It’s running out of time.”

PLOT RUNDOWN/BASICS: It’s been exactly one year since Molly lost her 9-year-old daughter Annie in a tragic accident - one where Molly had been behind the wheel. Her life has fallen apart in multiple ways - her son is away at boarding school, her oldest daughter seems to hate her guts and is in the throes of her own downward spiral, and her husband barely acknowledges her existence.

Just as she thinks it can’t get any worse, she finds herself out of gas...in the middle of nowhere...at night...in the midst of a category four hurricane. The darkness brewing inside of her threatens to combust when faced with the darkness surrounding her, and she briefly considers starting a new life...but then headlights appear in her path, and she flags the vehicle down, relieved to have found safety after all. Or so she thought.

Two weeks later, Nicole is awoken by a phone call after yet another night of drinking and strange men. The woman on the other end of the line tells her that she saw Nicole’s mother on the night of the hurricane...the night she disappeared without a trace. She gives Nicole details that weren’t released to the public, and that only someone who had actually seen Molly would know...and Nicole decides to take the stalled police investigation into her own hands. She packs her bags and heads to Hastings, the small town where her mother was last seen, vowing not to return home without Molly.

Nicole’s desperation to find out what has happened to her mother, and her mother’s own battle for her life, sets off a series of events and confrontations that reveal explosive twists and some seriously devious minds. What follows is a story of small-town secrets, corruption, captivity, poverty, abuse, and murder...and not everyone involved will make it out alive.

MY THOUGHTS: This was my first novel by Walker, although after reading it, I can safely say I will likely read her future books as well.

This is your basic psychological suspense novel, written from two different points of view - Molly’s and Nicole’s - in alternating chapters that take us backwards and forwards in time. We see Molly’s dilemma starting from the very beginning of her terrifying journey, up through the point where her and Nicole’s timelines merge days later; Nicole’s story in Chapter 2 starts on day 14, two weeks after her mom’s disappearance.

I enjoy a novel told from two points of view, especially with this type of storyline - and Walker makes it an easy transition from one point of view to the next, keeping some chapters incredibly short as the tension ratchets up. There are some twists and turns in the novel, although not necessarily ones that could go unpredicted, mind you (unlike in Alice Feeney’s roller-coaster His & Hers). This isn’t a surprise, considering the limited pool of guesses as to who Molly’s kidnapper could be in such a small town. However, this fact doesn’t deter from the addictiveness of the unfolding plot, which continually brings in new residents with their own intriguing secrets and unique potential reasons to break the law.

At its core, I think Don’t Look for Me is a darkly-told but heartbreaking view of the reality of living with the loss of a child, especially when you were responsible - even though it was an accident. We see the various ways people would cope with this type of immense loss: Molly longs to run away at the beginning of her story. She feels incredibly unloved and unwanted - and she's not wrong. Her own husband spends nights away from her and turns her own name into a way of belittling her when she experiences anxiety; he seems to throw himself into his work and away from his family. Nicole, who was just a teenager herself and witnessed the horror, feels responsible herself and lashes out both at Molly and her own life. She turns this loss - the "empty hollow spaces" that take over her life - into alcoholism and promiscuity, just searching for any numbing relief for the pain and loss of feeling.

These destructive coping mechanisms for grief could be the permanent undoing of relationships and someone’s quality of life, which Walker doesn’t shy away from in this novel. We can see the future for these people, and if things don’t change, it would be bleak. Don’t get me wrong; this novel is still a quick-read mystery/thriller at heart - and not the deep or overly “hopeful” and upbeat storyline of a general fiction novel. But Walker is here to tell us that, in our darkest hour, we must actively choose survival and life over death every day. Even if we’re wallowing in grief and loss so immense we can’t see the light for the darkness, there is still something worth fighting for, and Walker shows us what that is as we watch Molly and Nicole’s story unfold.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙙:
-SO many amazing plot twists, even though the book was predictable
-The pacing
-The character development - especially Alice. SUCH an intriguing character

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝘿𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚:
-Predictable ending

Overall, I LOVED this one!

In “Don't Look for Me” by Wendy Walker we meet Molly Clarke. An unimaginable tragedy has happened to her family and it has affected everyone around her. Then during a bad storm Molly disappears. Everyone believes she simply walked away from her family. Everyone but her daughter, Nicole, who believes that her mother would never intentionally leave. But as she begins to get closer to the truth, the secrets of a small town start to unravel and what she uncovers begin to put not just herself but those around her in more danger then she could ever imagine.

I received this book through Net Galley, and this is my honest review

Molly Clarke was always known for being smart rather than pretty. But when an unimaginable car accident kills her youngest daughter, Mollie can’t move past blaming herself. Her oldest daughter, son and husband are consumed with their own guilt, but still blame Mollie, too. So when Mollie’s car is found abandoned and out of gas on the side of a rural road, the authorities are quick to believe that she “walked away” from her unhappy life. Only her daughter Nic thinks something bad happened and tries to find her.

Wow! This is a great story that keeps you guessing. Not just a thriller, but also a look into the destructiveness of survivor guilt. I was imagining all kinds of scenarios. It was hard to put down.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book kept me entertained and guessing right until the very end! Every little town has its secrets so be careful where you run out of gas and be very careful of the people that seem so helpful in your time of need! My heart hurt for Molly and how her family treated her after a horrible accident that happened 5 years before the story starts. So much happens after her car breaks down in a rain storm that it left my head spinning but in a good way! It's hard to write this spoiler free but the writing was excellent and the characters were fleshed out and I was most creeped out by the little girl named Alice. Children who are raised like that are warped from a young age and what seems normal to them is definitely NOT normal to the rest of us. Creepy thriller you must read! I promise it will keep you on the edge of your seat and trying to solve the "walk away" mystery right til the very end of the book! I can't wait to read more from this talented author!

This was such a suspenseful novel - I loved it! The plot was original and the characters were multi-dimensional and sympathetic. I found myself worried about this family as I read. I loved the twists and turns as well. This is another great thriller by Wendy Walker.

I highly recommend Don't Look For Me by Wendy Walker - just be prepared to stay up all night!

Molly Clarke's family shattered at the accidental death of her 9 year old daughter, Annie. It has been a grueling five years of guilt as each person's role in the accident plays on their minds. One evening Molly's car runs out of gas on a rural highway just as a sever storm hits. She survives the storm only to find herself held captive, caged in a room looking after a 9 a year old girl named Alice.

The tension built so high that I took a peek a few chapters ahead to discover who-done-it. I never do that!!!

I volunteered to read an ARC from St. Martin's Press through Net Galley.

An entertaining mystery read with an interesting cast of characters...keeps the reader guessing and unsure exactly who the kidnapper is.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book.The review and comments are my honest opinion
An engrossing thriller with psychological terror, Molly Clarke’s life hasn’t been the same since she accidentally killed her nine year old daughter, Annie. It has been five long years and Molly is realizing that her other children hate her and her husband doesn’t love her. Did her mental state make Molly “walk away” from her life as the police believe, or has something more sinister happened to her. Molly has fallen down a rabbit hole and has her own Alice to prove it. I needed to sleep...but I needed to finish this book more.

Except for the language, this was a fascinating read with several twists that the reader won't expect. And to think I was sure I had it all figured out! Molly Clarke is missing, and her daughter goes to the town where her car was located, determined that she was still alive. Nicole just knows she can find her mother and take her back home. It wasn't an easy task, especially when she learns how many people involved had been lying to her.

Molly Clarke's life is far from perfect. Her children hate her and are embarrassed by her. Her husband may be having an affair because all the signs are there, but more importantly they all hold her responsible for the tragic, accidental death of the youngest Clarke child. But no one blames Molly more, than Molly herself.

One night on her way home from her son's college football game, Molly runs out of gas. With an impending storm, everything boarded and closed up, Molly accepts a ride from a man and his nine year old daughter - and that is the last sighting of Molly Clarke. Two days later, a note shows up at a casino saying not to look for her as she doesn't want to be found. The search is called off, but something doesn't feel right to Molly's daughter, Nicole and she decides to return to Hastings to try to uncover the truth. With lots of twists and turns, the book will keep you guessing until the very end.

This was a thrilling read, moved along at a good pace and the two Clarke women were strong, fierce and resourceful characters. Would definitely recommend.