It's always a hit and miss for me with Lisa Gardner. I think this one was more of a miss. I tried, i really did. Partly I couldn't get into it and completely follow it. But my effort to try wasn't there because it was really depressing, and there was no ray of light or hope in the book. I didn't finish feeling angered or emotionally caught up even if it is a sad ending i just felt sad. It had it's good points, clear character development and i know she can write, it was just not for me.

I love this author and was given this book to read in my “wish” and was super grateful to read it but it was so slow and just all around boring and I am so sad to write that but I had the hardest time getting into the story.

I truly love everything Lisa Gardner writes. She is on my "read everything no matter what" list of authors. My list of those authors is not very long. While watching Frankie Elkin search for a missing teen, we learn about her history with alcoholism and what brought her to her obsession with searching for the missing. The book was fast paced and it made you feel part of the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author/publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

A little birdie told me this was Gardner's first standalone - WHAAAAAAT.. but then I looked back and realized the last five books I've read by her were series books! Either way, she is absolutely one of my favorite authors! As usual, this is an addictive and moderately paced read and she brings us another flawed but very lovable MC with Frankie Elkin.
Finally, instead of a protagonist woman being drunk all the time and wondering why she can't remember things, we have Frankie who is a recovering alcoholic, standing strong in her sobriety. She travels from town to town to solve missing person cases. She has very few possessions and works mostly as a bartendar because she's damn good at it, and it actually keeps her straight, even if it can be tempting at times.

We get a little peep into her past but it's secondary to the case at hand... or so it seems.. because I didn't realize how invested I was until those last couple of pages and then OH MY HEART. That wasn't the added emotional tugging scene I needed right after the tearing up at her and Stoney. Gardner, you got me.

Readers: while this isn't a police procedural, it does tend to read like one at times and is character driven. While I was absolutely curious as to what was going on with missing girl, Angelique, I found myself more drawn to Frankie's story. She's worth getting involved with and I hope she pops up in one of Gardener's other books.

Well, that ended in quite the thrill. I really loved the main character, Frankie. She's broken but fierce and channeling her pain into helping others. I loved how focus she was even if it was a coping mechanism for her. Her relationship with Detective Lotham was intriguing and I liked how they played off of each other to solve the case. I also liked how their relationship developed. The missing case itself was interesting and not at all what I expected. Altogether found this one to have great pacing and plot building.

Frankie is a woman with a past that haunts her and as the book progresses we learn what demons she is dealing with. An addict, you get to see her shift from one addiction to another, both very different but she goes after them both with the same behaviors.

For the most part the pace of this book was great - there were parts that were a little slow

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner ❤️❤️❤️

I loved this one, and once I started I couldn’t put it down. This is Lisa Gardner’s first stand alone novel in 20 years and was certainly worth the wait. Frankie Elgin is a recovering alcoholic with a quest to find missing people. I highly recommend this novel to all readers who love mystery crime thrillers.

Thanks to net gallery and Dutton books for the advanced reading copy.

** spoiler alert ** I'm usually a huge Lisa Gardner fan, and this one was middle of the road for me. This novel tells the story of Frankie Elvin, a woman who has arrived in Mattapan (a neighborhood in Boston) to find a missing girl, Angelique. Frankie travels the country finding missing girls for free to atone for her past "sins". I felt as though in some ways Frankie's character was incredibly developed and in some ways, not at all. I felt like by the end of the book I didn't know her that much better than I did at the beginning. There was some complicated sexual tension with the detective she meets in Boston that carries itself throughout the book. The missing story of Angelique definitely had its twists and turns, but I felt like there were so many pages where I was just reading that they knew it was a forgery operation, but didn't know what kind. To the point where it began to drone on.

I always appreciate a good book set in Boston where I can read about and identify with my surroundings. This just wasn't the Lisa Gardner pick for me.

Lisa Gardner is one of my absolute favorite authors. Her latest book, Before She Disappeared, is a great addition to her catalog.

Gardner spends a great deal of time introducing her new character - Frankie Elkins - before the action really kicks in, about 30% into the book. While the story starts slow, once the action starts, it is hard to put this book down!

Now that I've been introduced to Frankie, I would love to see more books featuring her. Perhaps another series for Gardner?

This was really my first Lisa Gardner book, and I have to say I can see what the hype is about now! I really have to say, the way she portrays her characters in this book make them so believable and gritty.

Frankie, the main character of Before She Disappeared, struggles with alcoholism and is a very flawed character in general. She tries to make peace with her struggles and her past by helping those in the present looking for missing people.

Overall, I don't want to spoil the book, but the story was a great mystery/thriller, and the absolute humanity of this book just is unmatchable. It was raw and REAL.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC of this book.

Thank you so much @netgalley and @duttonbooks for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

TW: alcoholism, addiction, loss of a child, missing child, gangs

This was my first Lisa Gardner book and I really enjoyed it! I have learned that and has a series of books, but this is a stand-alone book!

I really liked how the author portrayed and talked about the main character’s, (Frankie) struggles with alcoholism. It shed some light on the real struggles people with addiction face. I also thought the author did a good job of showing the turmoil of having a lost child and not knowing if he/she is alive or coming home. And the detective’s struggles with the pressure of trying to find said missing child.

This one had me wanting to know what happened as it was a bit of a cat and mouse type detective story! I was surprised by how it turned out!

This book was a great mystery crime thriller, and hard to put down. Ms. Gardner did a great job of developing the characters while leaving parts of their story a secret to unveil later. Frankie was a great lead, who is doing her best to undo the mistakes of the past by helping others find peace. Truly a great story line and one we should all take to heart. Great read, pick it up - you wont be sorry!

Before She Disappeared is about Frankie Elkin, a woman that spends her life looking for missing people. The cases she goes after are mostly young women in where their cases have grown cold. Her new case is in Mattapan, MA near Boston, in a pretty rough neighborhood. She’s looking for Angelique Badeau, a smart teenager with a bright future ahead of her.
The book reminded me of why I like private detective books! Although, not a PI, Frankie is not afraid of ruffling some feathers, if it means finding Angelique. She also is a very troubled person herself. We get to know her a little at a time, which makes this book almost a double mystery! It had some twist and turns I didn’t see coming, and kept me reading way past my bedtime! This was a solid thriller.

When I think of Boston the images that pop into my head are iconic - the libraries, the academic institutions, and the historical monuments. In Lisa Gardner's new work 'Before She Disappeared' I discover, with the help of the character Frankie Elkin, the culturally diverse and scary area called Mattapan.

Frankie Elkin comes to Mattapan to search for a teen who has been missing for eleven-month. Angelique Badeau disappeared one Friday after school and despite the efforts of local police there is no sign of her. Frankie Elkin isn't a detective but she has a natural talent for connecting with communities, getting to know the people, listening to what they say, and asking questions that open doors. Frankie is a recovering alcoholic with a troubled past, but she uses these searches to provide a purchase that fills a gap inside her.

Frankie connects with the local police force and each day they work together to search for Angelique.

This book was wonderful - the intrigue, the suspense, the humanity, and the tragedy. I read the book in record time and hope that this is the first in a series with an amazing character by a talented author. Thank you Lisa.

Frankie is a recovering alcoholic who follows the cold cases of missing people from town to town. She has found 14 people but they all are dead when she finds them. Now she's looking for a missing 16yr old in Boston. She hopes to find this one alive while keeping her sobriety.

This was very well for as many twists and turns it had. This is the first book I have read by Lisa Gardner but I have read many great things about her books, I'm so glad I decided to start with this book. I have no problem recommending this book to anyone and I hope her other books are just as good.

Frankie Elkin is a recovering alcoholic who lives a nomadic lifestyle. After leaving her broken relationship and getting sober, she makes it her mission to travel from town to town searching for missing teens that everyone else seems to have given up on. At the beginning of the book we follow Frankie to Boston area, Mattapan, in search of a missing girl in a rough neighborhood. Frankie quickly pushes herself into the action and finds unlikely friends. Will she be able to find the missing girl while she is still alive?

I enjoyed this book and although it is marketed as a stand alone book from an author that is known for her series, I can see this story easily becoming a series as well. I know I wouldn't mind reading more about Frankie. My one complaint with the book is that there were some times where it felt really repetitive, mostly when she was thinking through the clues internally, she would repeat herself. I also noticed that when I sat down to read this intentionally I was immediately sucked in but as I left it, it didn't call to me. This could have been what I have going on in my life right now. Overall, this had complex characters that had me rooting for them to succeed and I thought Frankie was flawed and loveable.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for the advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book is available to purchase now.

Another great book from Lisa Gardner. This one is about a recovering alcoholic named Frankie who's on a mission: she travels the country searching for missing people. She reminded me of Lee Child's character Jack Reacher in some ways: she has almost no long-term personal ties, going from place to place with very few physical belongings but plenty of emotional baggage. But, unlike Reacher, she quickly develops a lot of intense personal relationships wherever she goes - at AA meetings, with the cops, with the victims' family, with neighbors and witnesses - and that's a large part of the fun of the book. The racial issues are interesting too: in this novel, which I hope will turn out to be the first of a series, she's a White woman investigating in a Haitian community in Boston. The mystery story is moving, and involves criminal behavior I won't describe to avoid spoilers, but I enjoyed learning about. Great stuff! Thank you to Dutton and Netgalley for this advance reading copy.

Frankie Elkin is not your average middle aged woman. Yes, she lives out of a suitcase. No she doesn't have a home, a car or a permanent address. What she does do is find missing people. And she's good at it. Though all the ones she's found have been dead. Still, the family have had some degree of closure. They now know where their lived one is.
A fifteen year old girl has been missing for eleven months. The case is cold. There are no new leads. Frankie is able to connect with the family. With her experience she is able to find clues the police haven't. She's hoping to find the missing girl. Hopefully she'll be alive.
I was gifted this book to read and review by the publisher through Netgalley.
It's a great read. I was thoroughly entertained and couldn't wait to see what happened. Lots of twists and turns and plenty of suspects!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for allowing me to read this copy.
This was my first Lisa Gardner book, I have a few on my shelf but just haven’t gotten around to it. To say I was invested in this one from the beginning would be an understatement. It’s been a while since I read a book about a missing person, let alone a missing teenager. I was pulled in and needed to know what happened. With every reveal, it just led to a bigger mystery and those are the books I love. I still had no idea what happened by the midpoint, normally I can kind of guess where the story is going at that point but this one just kept me guessing the entire time. The ending shocked me completely, if you love a good mystery this one for you!

Okay, first of all I need to say I enjoy Lisa Gardner's writing and then I need to say Wow. I hope (please) that this will become a series. Okay now to say why I liked it. First I didn't know there were regular every day people out there looking for the lost/missing. Having said that, Frankie, a broken recovering alcoholic who 'looks' for the missing, great character, I felt like I knew her. Secondly how refreshing that this wasn't a cookie cutter mystery. Can't say a lot more than that about the what 'happened' to Angelique. Thank you NetGalley and Dutton.