This was my first time reading a book by Lisa Gardner. Now I'm hooked and can't wait to read the rest of the series.
Detective D.D Warren is called in to investigate when four family members are murdered in their own home. It's a disturbing crime scene; The Mother and her boyfriend are found dead downstairs, and upstairs a thirteen year old girl is found in a last embrace with her little brother. The eldest daughter, Roxanne, and the families two dogs are missing. Does that mean she was the one who slaughtered her family , or is she hiding in fear of her life?
D.D and her partner Phil need to find her fast as more and more people connected to the family are being shot at. She, reluctantly, shares tips with a confidential informant called Flora Dane. Flora was kidnapped and held prisoner for over a year and has now set up a survivor's help group. She is also a bit of a vigilante and goes after the likes of rapists and murderers. Roxanne has recently been asking for advice from her online on how to protect herself so she doesn't believe that she would have killed her own family so sets out to find her to help prove that she's right.
I would highly recommend this book, but if reading about child abuse is not for you give this one a miss.

Detective DD Warren and Flora Dane are in a race against time to save a young girl's life - or bring her to justice.

A family home has become a crime scene. Five people are involved: four of them have been savagely murdered; one - a sixteen-year-old girl - is missing.

Was she lucky to have escaped? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister?

Detective D. D. Warren is on the case, as is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane.

Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who, as victim or suspect, is silently pleading, Look for me.

I enjoyed this book, but felt a little let down in that it didn't fully grab my attention. For me it most definitely was not unputdownable and it took me ages to read. 3.5*

Wow, this book had me hooked from the first, explosive chapter! A real ‘can’t put it down’ book about a young girl who goes missing after her entire family have been murdered. Is she involved or just another victim?
Flora Dane is the survivor of a kidnap years earlier who set up a support group for people in similar situations and who tries to help solve missing persons cases, much to the annoyance of local police.
This book is full of suspense and keeps you guessing throughout. Would definitely recommend!

Thank you to Net Galley and Lisa Gardner for allowing me to read and review this book.

great book. was trapped in it.couldnt put it down.cant wait for her next one

You definitely won’t won’t to put this down near the end. The story is told in 3 voices:- Detective DD Warren who is leading the case, Flora Dane who is a survivor of a horrifying abduction and runs a group of survivors, and teenager Roxy via her school essays on the Perfect Family.

A family is brutally murdered in their home, but the eldest daughter and the 2 dogs are missing. Is she hiding from the protagonist having had a lucky escape or is she the ruthless killer?

Either way Detective Warren and Flora need to find her quickly before she is either murdered or kills again. When others start getting shot, it all becomes more complicated. Flora and Detective Warren have to find a way of working together to solve all the problems, and to find Roxy.

A really good read.

This book has a strong start.

A good hook, opening with a triple murder witnessed by a girl, Sarah, who seems to experience emotions and sounds in colours. Second chapter introduces us to a fairly interesting Detective D.D Warren who's called to investigate a crime scene consisting of an entire murdered family with the oldest sibling and 2 dogs missing. Then it introduces Flora and the book falls flat.

Flora is boring, impossible to relate to (personally) and her chapters grind the pace of the story to a complete halt. Her scenes mainly consist of her talking about her emotions, her inability to deal with them and lots of uninteresting and vague backstory. For some reason, up until I gave up reading, we never hear from Sarah again. I don't understand why the book starts with a first person P.O.V from a character who is not going to be a large part of the narrative.

There's a lot of telling instead of showing. D.D Warren is supposedly tough and hardened by her job but the only evidence of that is the stupid threats she makes occasionally, with regards to arresting people for lying to her. The threats make no sense and just make D.D Warren sound like a woman prone to tantrums rather than someone genuinely ready to show her adversaries what's what.

Flora's parts are told in first person P.O.V and D.D Warren's parts are told in third person (sometimes limited, sometimes omniscient, apparently). The constant switch, I found jarring and annoying. There's also some filler that hastened my decision to stop reading.

The missing teenager's backstory is told via a series of essays the reader has to slog through, about the girl's impression of a perfect family. The essays contain all the exposition and emotional manipulation that you wouldn't expect from a 16 year old writing an essay and this drew me further out of the story.

The final thing that made me completely give up on this book was the massively unrealistic info-dumpy dialogue that 2 professional people give out at the drop of a mere suggestion of a question. Two side characters who realistically wouldn't have much information to give on their subjects, conveniently reel off endless unknowable details about their colleague/student, as if they're being paid to recite a 30 minute monologue. Just to further the plot without any real investigation on the part of the protagonists. This is lazy writing, insulting to the reader and above all, boring.

I'm disappointed to give up on this book but it's a lost cause when I don't like or care about the characters, the writing is lacking and I'm bored stiff trying to push on with it. I have too many books on my TBR to continue wasting my time.

DNF at 28%.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A huge thanks to Netgalley for the electronic arc of Lisa Gardner’s new book, which sees the return of DD Warren. The book begins with a particularly brutal slaying of a family. One of the family is missing. A 16 year old girl. Is she a victim? Or is she a suspect? What follows is an excellently written thriller that follows the action from three different perspectives. One of the best in this genre.

My first book of Lisa Gardner with the D. D. Warren series. I have heard of the author and series, but somehow I seemed to have missed the opportunity to read their books. So mighty glad to have read this one. In saying that, I could read this book easily there was enough background information to the main characters. So I didn't feel I needed to read the first few, though I will go back to read them as time permits.
This time D D Warren is joined by Flora Dane, apparently from 'Find her' book, who runs a Survivor Support group and acts as a partner to Warren. I love books which write about strong women, and you can't go wrong with 2 of them. Flora intrigued me; she taught survivors of traumatic incidents to toughen up and start living life.
Warren is called to investigate a family massacre where one of the kids 16 year old Roxy has left home earlier with 2 blind dogs. Has she been kidnapped? Is she a victim? Did she get her family killed.? Is she the lone witness? Survivor or suspect is the theme and finding her is the race against time.
This book too follows the path of a suspense thriller but it had a social theme of abuse of kids in foster care, which just pulls the heart strings.
I enjoyed Lisa Gardner's flow of writing, the plot was fast paced, with short chapters. Her main characters Flora and Warren had great chemistry, their dialogs were the highlight of the book. And the plot though slightly predictable for people who read this genre, it still had its intrigue and suspense to make this an entertaining read.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review, thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for my copy.

I was gripped by this detective story, and devoured it over three commutes as the plot unfolded. I haven’t read any others in the series, but didn’t feel like I was missing anything crucial, so that shouldn’t put you off and this book can definitely be read as a standalone.
I would give this book 3.5 stars, I couldn’t stretch to 4 as although the story was involving and interesting, the denouement was a little predictable, and the resolution felt rushed after so much time had been spent on the investigation and development of the story.
If you want a thrilling crime drama and to play detective alongside the characters, then this is the book for you!

Look for Me by Lisa Gardner is book 9 in the DD Warren series. I have only read a few of them and enjoyed them all.. this one was no different.

The book starts with a brutal first chapter where teenage girls are slaughtered in their own home. It then jumps to Warren being called out to a murder scene where 4 members of the same family have been murdered. The 16 year old daughter Roxie and 2 dogs are not home. The search is on to find her and investigate if she is a victim or suspect.

Thanks to Random House UK, Netgalley and TBC for an advance copy of this book to read and enjoy in exchange for my honest opinions.

This was my first Lisa Gardner book, but it won't be the last. From the shocking opening to its conclusion, it is a gripping read packed with tension, raw emotion and heart-pumping drama. The author introduces a cast of wholly believable – and damaged – characters, the principal two being Detective DD Warren and survivor-turned vigilante Flora Dane. At the heart of the story is young Roxie, who is on the run after a brutal slaying. Is she a victim or the perpetrator of a terrible crime? I found the essays written by Roxie for school to be particularly harrowing, laying bare the deficiencies of a care system designed to protect but failing miserably in many cases. My only small niggle would be that – at just over 400 pages – the book seemed stretched out at times. However, it remains a fine example of crime thriller writing at its best.

This is the first book I’ve read by Lisa Gardner and while it’s part of a series, it read fine as a standalone. A young girl’s entire family has been killed, and she is now missing – together with the family dogs. Is she a murderer on the run or is she running scared? The shockingly violent opening gripped me right from the start, and set the scene for a story about a number of victims: of murder, neglect, abuse and enslavement. It features Sergeant Detective DD Warren, a no-nonsense cop who loves her job – even though it takes her away from her husband and her beloved five-year-old son. There’s a wonderful contrast throughout this book between what’s going on in DD’s world as a policewoman (a massacre, a missing girl, foster care abuse) and in that of her son – who’s choosing his new dog. I really enjoyed DD – her witty observations, her cynicism, her passion and her relationship with those around her. When Flora Dane, a former victim who now devotes her life to helping other victims, becomes involved in the case it adds another dimension – and another string – to the investigation. I particularly enjoyed the obvious respect yet tension that played out between Flora and DD. Worth a read if you enjoy thrillers!

It's been a long time since I have caught up with DD and I was looking forward to seeing how she was doing. This latest installment sees the return of Flora Dane who was featured in the last book in the series, only this time she is working her way through life as a survivor.

DD is called to a murder scene involving a whole family, except one member of that family, the eldest daughter Roxy. DD needs to work out if Roxy is the suspect or the victim. Flora has a link to Roxy and as such manages to insert herself into the investigation and as such becomes DD's newest CI. Frankly it seems like a match made in heaven and I couldn't help but think this element of the story fitted in seamlessly.

The story is pretty well paced, although in all honesty probably not one of my favourites in the series. However, DD remains a favourite character of mine and I think this series most certainly still has the legs to keep running. There is quite a lot going on and the reader is kept engaged, however although I absolutely loved the addition of Flora, I kind of missed seeing more of her other colleagues so the return of those in the next book would definitely be welcome. I think to enjoy this book it always helps to have read the series in order as you have the background of the characters involved. Certainly an enjoyable book and one that I think fans will really enjoy.

I hadn't realised when I started reading quite how many previous books there had been involving Detective DD Warren. I usually like to read in order, however I felt that you could pick up enough of the back story in this to make it an effective standalone. Maybe gave me a different angle, as I saw this as a Flora Dane novel, rather than DD Warren. Anyway, a good read, and enough questions that the outcome wasn't immediately obvious. And when you thought you'd worked it out there was still some doubt, and at least one point where I'm sure I shouted aloud "NO!" A good lesson in not making assumptions, and how there's always more to a situation than appears the case. Full of sadness at a waste of young lives, and anger at a system that breaks children.

Look for me is one of those novels that has you gasping for breath right from the outset. The shocking first chapter is reminiscent of Karin Slaughter novels and while effective, it take time to link into the main story of Look for Me, buts it’s worth persevering.
This story is extremely disturbing and horrific and really looks into the social care system and whether it works for families or against them. I needed the answers and now that I have them I don’t feel much better but Look for me is a fascinating yet tragic read.

I didn’t download this beforehand the link expired and I am absolutely gutted because I adore this author and this series!

What appears to be a relatively straightforward family shooting soon becomes a complicated case as abusive foster homes, jealous girlfriends, female gangs and vigilantes all weave together in a thrilling race to find out who slaughtered Roxy's family.

I came into this series stone cold, so I was pretty impressed by how well this book set the scene! Introducing me to a world filled with well-rounded characters, shared histories and (of course) a juicy murder plot, this was an interesting, multi-layered story that I thoroughly enjoyed.
We get to see this murder case from a variety of sides: D.D Warren, returning for her ninth novel; Sarah, who survived a brutal murder spree when she was at university, and Flora Dane, returning (hooray!) for the first time after she was introduced in the previous novel, Find Me.
With all those characters knocking around together, there’s potential for the story to get seriously crowded, especially with the missing girl, Roxy Baez, getting her own voice heard in the form of a series of short essays penned whilst she was at high school- and sometimes it does. Mostly, though, the plot threads gel together into a comprehensive whole, giving us a look at all aspects of the murder case as D.D, Flora and Sarah all hunt for Roxy, the sole surviving member of a family who was gunned down in suburbia by an unknown killer.
The thing I like about reading long series is that all the characters have history, and true to form, we get a look into D.D’s life with her young son (which I would have liked to have seen more of!), as well as the details of the case. Flora and D.D make an excellent team, and both are great, well-written personalities, especially Flora. Flora’s desire for vigilante justice dovetails nicely with D.D’s desire to get the job done, and there’s a great rapport there that will hopefully come along in future books- as well as a hopefully very juicy character arc.
The murder case itself? Very intricately plotted, with a great hook: the missing girl. Gardner skilfully leads us deeper into the lives of the Baez family, revealing plot twists, skeletons in various closets, and secrets that will keep you guessing until the end. It’s a really interesting look, too, at the foster care system, and of the dangers it can bring to the children within it.
Even though the jumble of voices narrating the story can sometimes prove a little deafening, this novel is a well-told, expertly written police procedural with a charismatic set of main characters. Now I might have to go back and read all of Gardner’s other books…

When four members of a family are slaughtered in their home and the sole family survivor, a teenage girl, apparently flees the scene and remains in hiding, you may assume this is a straightforward case involving parricide and siblicide. If you've read a Lisa Gardner book before then you'll know that this will definitely not be the ultimate outcome of the murder investigation. This is the premise for the latest novel to feature Detective D. D. Warren. The family in question is the previously dysfunctional Juanita Baez, her three children, and Juanita's recent lover Charlie Boyd. Sixteen-year-old Roxanna is the only member of the household to evade murder and, with the two family pet dogs, disappears into the Boston cityscape with no explanation or reason — other than she may be the perpetrator of the crime fleeing the scene.

D.D. Warren has her small investigation team of officers supplemented by private citizen Flora Dane, a vigilante survivor of a kidnapping that Warren previously investigated and solved for the BPD. Together they strive to piece together a family history of parental alcoholism, possible adolescent substance dependency, child sexual abuse, and an absent father who subsequently finds himself on a killer's hit-list. The circumstantial evidence seems to lead to the foster home that Juanita's girls were placed in while she struggled to regain a semblance of being a responsible parent. But, as always, everything is not as it first seems.

As the plot evolves D.D. Warren begins to suspect that the investigation is possibly more than a simple race to find Roxanna before the teenager kills again. Rather, the police team may be Roxanna's only hope of salvation. They may need to locate her before she herself is gunned down by an unidentified lunatic. Will the clues lead to the true killer, and will they be deciphered in time?

The story follows the usual template for a whodunit murder mystery, and if you favour this genre then you need look no further than Lisa Gardner for an entertaining read.

I enjoyed this book, but it lost my attention half way through, as a result I probably wouldn't recommend it.