AMY IMOGENE READS
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Adult
    • YA / MIDDLE GRADE
    • NONFICTION+
  • More
  • About Me

Welcome to my Adult Reviews!
Check out my recent reviews below. For specific categories, see my Categories section.

BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED - Lisa Gardner

12/23/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
4 stars

Wow, this mystery packed a punch... but the true star of the show was the complexity of the main character/amateur detective, Frankie Elkin. Very strong opener for a woman I hope we see in more sequels.

Writing: ★★★★
Pacing: ★★★
Mystery(s)/Reveal(s): ★★★
Characters: ★★★★★

A woman with a haunted past, Frankie Elkin has carved out a space within empty spaces for herself as a traveling amateur investigator. No home, no possessions, no family to encourage her to settle down and keep her roots.

She follows the trails of the missing. And she's found 14 of them so far. None were alive, but that's not what Frankie promised their family in the first place--Frankie promised to find them. And she does.

In Before She Disappeared, Frankie arrives in Boston with her nose to the ground on a missing persons case that's spent 11 months gathering dust by the local investigators. Angelique Badeau, a promising young Haitian immigrant attending Boston Academy high school, went missing after school one day. The leads dried up fast.

Her younger brother, Emmanuel, is convinced that she's still alive somewhere.

The cops, including the brooding Detective Lotham in charge of the case, don't think that's the case.

Frankie doesn't know who is right just yet, but she's determined to find out.

If there's one thing Frankie is good at, it's asking the right questions. And being such a pain in cops' ass that they begrudgingly ignore her tactics and let her stumble around the fringes of the case. With one begrudging Detective Lotham at her side, Frankie's ready to roll...

I thought this was one heck of a good mystery/thriller. There was just enough of a pacing issue to keep it from being an all-time favorite for me, personally, but it came close. Before She Disappeared is a tightly plotted, atmospheric, and memorable thriller with a rock-solid core in its protagonist, Frankie.

Frankie and her singular sense of drive really carried this novel for me, even when I struggled to engage with the plot at the beginning. I wanted to know more about this woman—why was she doing this? What in her past made her this way, and what would it take for her to recover?

Other elements that really worked for me was the setting and side characters. I've never been to Boston, and I'm definitely not plugged in to the Haitian immigrant population and their day-to-day flow, but in this novel the author breathed life into that scenario and I could almost believe that I was there and knew what the heck I was talking about (obviously I don't, but it speaks to the author's research and/or ability to convey a particular geographic imprint that I felt that "sold" onto the worldbuilding).

I'd strongly recommend this one to fans of Louisa Luna, Jane Harper, and other moody mystery/thrillers with killer writing and unbelievably real main characters.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Amy Imogene Reads

    Just someone looking for her own door into Wonderland.

    Categories

    All
    Advanced Reader Copy
    Fantasy
    Fiction
    Historical Fiction
    Horror
    Mystery/Thriller
    Romance
    Science Fiction
    Short Stories
    Speculative

    Picture

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019

    RSS Feed

Picture
Home
About
Contact
All reviews posted are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any other individual or entity.  When applicable, reviewed titles sent to me by the publisher are noted at the bottom of each review.
Professional Reader 50 Book Reviews 80%
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Adult
    • YA / MIDDLE GRADE
    • NONFICTION+
  • More
  • About Me