I really enjoyed this book. Surprisingly I had never read a Lisa Gardner book before. I do love books about people who disappeared. I loved the character development. It’s amazing that someone could travel around and find people that no one cares about even the cops who are supposed to care. The story of Frankie and why she does what she does was interesting and the family struggle to find there missing child was engaging. The ending was great and I would def read another by this author.

This book is captivating in a dark and serious way. The main character, Frankie is a recovering alcoholic and the author paints her feelings and thoughts very vividly. As she searches for the missing girl, the reader becomes unable to stop reading. The plot thickens, the details start coming together and I missed breakfast trying to read through to the end. Great mystery unfolded!

This book was wonderful. A classic mystery. I was so apprehensive to find out what would happen. Also, as the daughter of a recovering addict, the fact that the main character was in recovery, I felt like she was very relatable. Thanks so much Netgalley, for the advanced copy!

Frankie is a recovering alcoholic who has lost the love of her life and abandoned her life to devote herself to tracking down cold case missing people, especially minority women. All of her possessions fit into one small suitcase as she travels around the country and she has closed 14 cases. Her latest brings her to Boston to search for a Haitian immigrant who had been living with her aunt and younger brother until she disappeared 11 months ago. Frankie takes a job as a bartender in a bar in the dangerous neighborhood in which the missing girl lived and moves into a room above the bar, sharing it with a psycho cat.

As she works to gain the trust of people related to the case, as well as the local police, new clues come to light and Frankie’s life is in danger.

Lisa Gardner is a successful, prolific writer, and this is a good addition to her body of work. I found it difficult at first to warm to the main character whom I found a bit unbelievable, but as Frankie tells people, her personality did grow on me in time. Fast paced, a quick read, with an ending suggesting that this may be the beginning of a new series……..

Riveting
Stunning
Propulsive

I LOVED this thrilling crime novel, the latest from the queen of crime thrillers, and a master storyteller, Lisa Gardner. I had been a fan of the Detective D.D. Warren series, and BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED is Gardner’s first stand alone in over 20 years.

The writing of Frankie’s character, an unlikely heroine out to rescue missing persons when everyone had given up, was superb. Frankie is a recovering alcoholic, a middle aged woman whose next mission leads her to Boston. What she finds is not only a search for one but two connected kidnappings that may be more than what she has bargained for.

An exciting and exhilarating twisty thriller I really enjoyed.

Frankie Elgin has made it her mission to help find missing persons in forgotten cases. Love this character, damaged, recovering alcoholic, caring a lot of guilt. Currently searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager Who vanished from high school. A good detective story that will keep you guessing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Before She Disappeared follows Frankie Elkin, a recovering alcoholic with a tragic past that never stays in one place too long. She has devoted her life to searching for missing people that the world has stopped looking for. Frankie may not be a reporter or a police offer but she's damn good at what she does. Considering her talent for asking the right questions and uncovering answers that have evaded the police, law enforcement have certainly never been her biggest fans.
When her current case brings her to Mattapan - a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation - she encounters resistance not only from the Boston PD but from the locals. It's not long before she realizes she's asking questions someone doesn't want answered.
Thankfully, this time around she finds an ally in Detective Lotham. He may be frustrated by her ability to get people to talk but since it breathes new life into a case that's been cold for 11 months he has no choice but to let her help. Together they race to find Angelique before it's too late.

Before She Disappeared is a character driven, police procedural/mystery. It was well-written, engaging and suspenseful. The pacing was a bit slower than I would have liked and it could be repetitive at times but it really picks up toward the end.

As for the characters, my favorites have to be Lotham and Stoney. And I can't not mention Piper - the 'homicidal' cat who happens to inhabit the small apartment Frankie decides to rent. I didn't dislike Frankie but had a hard time connecting with her in the beginning though she grew on me after a while.

The investigation definitely took some unexpected turns which I enjoyed. Frankie has a knack for finding trouble that's for sure.
After finishing the book, I have to admit that I didn't love the ending. It may be in character for Frankie but I had hopes that she'd finally put down some roots.
I know this is a standalone but I would love to see more of Frankie...preferably in Boston solving missing persons cases with Lotham while continuing to work at Stoney's bar.

Frankie Elkin doesn’t have a home. She doesn’t have a car. She doesn’t have a husband or kids. But she does have an addiction, maybe more than one. She does have determination. And she has a gift for finding missing people. That’s what brings her to a small neighborhood in Boston filled with Haitian immigrants, to a bar called Stoney’s that has an opening for a bartender and a small apartment to let upstairs.

There is a teenage girl who is missing, and Frankie wants to find her. Angelique Badeau left school one Friday afternoon and was never seen again. The police found her backpack, her cell phone, her school clothes. Family and friends were questioned at the time. They knew of no boyfriend. She had no drug problems. She was a good kid who wanted to graduate high school and become a doctor. She wanted to help people. Angel had no reason to disappear. And yet she did.

Frankie shows up and immediately gets to work. As a white woman in a predominantly Haitian area, she stands out. She makes people nervous. But Frankie is persistent. She is honest and unrelenting and completely up front about what she’s wanting to do. She is not a cop. She’s not a journalist. She’s not a podcaster or an author or a private investigator. She doesn’t want money. She just wants to find people who are missing. People whose cases have gone cold. People who have been all but forgotten. She’s already found 14. She just hasn’t found any who were still alive.

As Frankie starts asking questions, she finds herself making friends . . . and making people nervous. She quickly meets the police officer who works as a liaison officer to the neighborhood and then the lead detective. She talks to the family, asks questions that no one else has thought to ask. She traces Angel’s steps and talks to her friends. She gets coffee and directions through the confusing streets of Boston at the local Dunkin Doughnuts. She tries the local foods. She goes to AA meetings. She finds her way into the trust of Angel’s brother, of the locals at Stoney’s, of Stoney’s cat Piper, of the police.

But there is someone out there who knows what happened to Angelique. Because they are what happened to her. And they will do anything to keep from revealing what they know. Will Frankie be ready for them when she finally finds them? Will they be ready for her?

Master of thrillers Lisa Gardner has gifted us Before She Disappeared, a taut narrative of missing persons and the woman obsessed with finding them. The characters spring to life from the page, their pain and struggles, their celebrations, their meals, their fears, their purring all breathe a realism to this story that is hard to resist and harder to walk away from. You will be sucked in and, like someone sleeping under a cat, you will not be able to leave until you get to the end.

I am a victim of Before She Disappeared. I started it and couldn’t set it aside until I found out what happened to these people. Even now, that I’ve reached the end of the book, I know that these characters will say with me and feel more real than some of the people I see in real life. The layers of the story are gripping, the setting is interesting, but those characters are so nuanced that they will live on in my memory, and maybe in my dreams. If you want to be haunted by a book, then this is the book you need to read. Don’t expect less from this one.

Egalleys for Before She Disappeared were provided by Penguin (Dutton) through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I love, love, love Lisa Gardner. I absolutely blow through her books, and I finish them in a matter of just a few days. That being said, I don't think this was her strongest offering. However, I liked Frankie A LOT and would love more books about her. The way this novel ended... there's gotta be more, right? Please?!

Thanks, Netgalley, for this arc!

This was such an interesting plot to a book... probably one of the most interesting domestic thriller/mystery novels I've read to date. It was unique because I've never read a protagonist like Frankie and I loved the intertwined stories of the other people in Boston along with the very real-life issue of race, immigration, and low-income neighborhoods.

Angelique is one smart cookie and the way her character is set up is truly awe-inspiring. It's wild that a teenage girl had the balls to do everything she did... also, you find out more and more about her as the novel goes on and it's just the best. She's an amazing character.

When you find out everything that happened that led to Angelique's disappearance, it's pretty intense and not the traditional mystery plot that you expect from a novel like this.

Frankie and her struggles with alcohol and saving people is a huge plot point and while it's interesting, it's not totally 'new'. However, what does set Frankie apart is that she isn't a detective... she's just a regular person who knows how to ask good questions, has great instincts, and a passion for finding people in a way to pay back a debt she feels she owes the world.

All the characters in this novel were so different and brought something to the table. The writing was excellent and the character development was even better.

This was also a story that kept unraveling... it didn't completely climax at one point, it rolled slowly toward a reveal of what happened to Angelique and why it happened. Her reveal and the reasoning did happen fast, combined with so many other reveals, I sped read through the pages because I couldn't believe everything happening. It was wild and intense and perfect.

The ending was semi-satisfactory... I love that we got the entire story of Angelique wrapped up in a bow but Frankie left me wanting more.

I felt like there was so much more to the story that we could've gotten -- not that this wasn't bursting with plotlines and jaw-droppers but that there is so much story to tell about this small Boston town. I would like at least two more novels about the city with these characters.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
This is my first from Lisa Gardner. Quick paced and very eventful! Definitely got my blood pumping. If you’re a fan of the ID channel, you’ll enjoy this book.

Lisa Gardner is a sure thing for me. Her books are always amazing that keep me glued to my kindle and Before She Disappeared did not disappoint! The story of these two families was so interesting. The way Lisa intertwined them more then their missing daughters was amazing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Frankie is a flawed character with a good heart. This definitely isn’t a simple mystery. It’s layered and complex. I’ve been a fan of this author for a while but this may be my favorite. I hope this can be turned into a series.

Lisa Gardner never disappoints with me. The story revolves around two teens who go missing shortly after one another and how the two families are connected. It's captivating.

Frankie Elkin is a recovering alcoholic and amateur sleuth who travels to a new place to find a missing person when the police have given up or have reached a dead end. She's cunning, determined, and has nothing to lose-- a scary combination that helps her find the missing. Haunted by the missing people she's found previously and past regrets, Frankie, consumes herself with the next case. This one brings her to Mattapan, MA to find Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenage girl. There are twist and turns that lead to a compelling story about a woman who won't give up until she's found those that have disappeared.

This book is quickly paced and exciting throughout. The ending isn't super easy to figure out and this leads to an engaging mystery and thriller as readers scramble to put the pieces together along with Frankie and Boston Police Department Detective Lotham. Lisa Gardner is a fantastic writer. Each character is complex and realistic, the communities in Boston are written about with respect and nuance, and the intricate complexity of alcoholism is handled with care.

“My name is Frankie Elkin and finding missing people is what I do. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never bothered to care, I start looking.“—from Before She Disappeared

Frankie has been searching for missing people for ten years. The same number of years she has been sober. She has yet to find one alive, but has provided closure for fourteen families. She hopes this case ends better.

Angelique is a fifteen-year-old Haitian living in a rough area of Boston when one day she never returns home from school. Ambitious and a planner, Angelique is a good girl. It has been eleven months since she disappeared so Frankie decides to investigate.

I adored this fast-paced and exciting thriller. The characters, even the secondary ones, are so well-written that I wouldn’t be surprised if they popped out of the book into my living room. Throughout the book there are many twists and turns in the plot. If you love fully realized characters and a heart-pounding plot, I highly encourage you to read Before She Disappeared. 5 stars and a favorite! Now if Frankie can just survive this case so this book can be the start of a new Lisa Gardner series, I would be overjoyed.

Thanks to Dutton Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Based in the inner city of Boston, the mystery is why 2 high school girlfriends of color disappeared at different times. The Boston Police conducted an investigation after the first disappearance that resulted in a dead end. Enter Frankie, a free-lance, friend of Bill, investigator who travels the country looking for missing people as a service to families (and herself).

As a white woman in a Afro American neighborhood, in her travels through the community, Frankie speaks to the struggles of inner city poor struggling to get by. We are introduced to various members of the community as Frankie seeks to ingratiate herself in this world to gain information and perspective. We also learn about the inner lives of kids of color and the working of the Boston Police Department equipped with the electronics to track and find people.

While slow at times, once the author places the foundation of her story, the book becomes more compelling as Frankie put the pieces of the puzzle together in a mosaic of the girls’ interests and relationships. We also learn more about Frankie and what drives her to do this work. The book is well constructed and bring the reader along for an interesting trip.

A typical middle-aged woman is a recovering alcoholic filled with a lifetime of regrets. Frankie (Love that name) does what no one else wants to do or better yet couldn't do. She spends her life searching for missing people where the search had long ago ended. When there is no hope left that is when Frankie steps in. A new case has her traveling a Boston neighborhood and we're not talking Beacon Hill. to solve her next case.

It did take a bit for me to get wrapped up in this one, but once I did I couldn't stop reading. There were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. It is not my favorite book of hers, but worth the read.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book for an honest review. I have always loved Lisa Gardner books and this was no exception. I loved the character of Frankie and was rooting from the very beginning for her success. The characters were developed and the story kept adding twists and turns. Excellent read!!