3.5 stars. Don't Look For Me starts with a mom that goes missing and a daughter who comes to look for her. The suspense builds with the mother learning how to outsmart her captor and the daughter learning who she can trust. Psychology is at play, even if to only try to stay one step ahead. Don't Look For Me touches on guilt, manipulation, grief, and desire. Another enjoyable and consuming read from Wendy Walker. I wish the ending was stronger. It seemed rushed, but the book was still entertaining.

From internationally bestselling author Wendy Walker comes DON’T LOOK FOR ME, a gripping and emotionally taut thriller about a missing mother and a ticking clock.

Today is the five-year anniversary of the death of Molly Clarke’s youngest daughter, Annie. During that time, Molly has watched her family fall apart and reunite as she has tried to keep them --- and herself --- together. With the pain only a mother knows, she has seen her oldest child, Nicole, drown her pain in vodka and flings; driven four hours back and forth to her son’s football games; and slept side-by-side with her increasingly distant husband. But Molly knows she deserves all of this and more; after all, she was the one driving the car that hit her daughter.

With the anniversary bringing back painful memories for her loved ones, Molly knows she should be with them, not driving home from her son’s boarding school in the middle of a hurricane. But maybe she's catastrophizing the situation and it's really not that bad; as her husband always reminds her, she has to stop being “so Molly” about everything. When her car runs out of gas and strands her on the side of the road, she is relieved when a truck stops to ask if she needs help. As a grown woman, she knows better than to go off with a strange man, but his daughter is also in the vehicle. Desperate to get home, she hops in. So begins day one of her entrapment.

Told in alternate storylines, Walker brings us weeks into the future, writing in Nicole's voice. In the days following her mother’s disappearance, a note is found in a hotel room telling Molly’s family not to look for her, that she has gone off to punish herself and make room for their happiness without her. The police deem the case a “walk-away” and stop searching for Molly. But something about the situation doesn’t sit right with Nic. She knows they argued that morning, and she said terrible things that she can never take back. But she also is aware that she too played a role in Annie's death and cannot believe that her mother would leave her to shoulder the burden alone. When a woman calls claiming to have seen Molly the night she disappeared, Nic sets off for Hastings, the town where her mother’s car was found.

In a chilling chronicle, Walker walks us through each day of Molly’s abduction. Trapped in a decrepit and dusty home with an eerie child who bears a striking resemblance to her late daughter, Molly struggles to understand why the man who picked her up chose her and fights to escape. Meanwhile, we look on as Nic learns more about Hastings, an incestuous and bizarre town where everyone knows everyone, strangers are not trusted, and, it seems to Nic, everyone is lying about something. With both women hunting down the truth, Walker throws twist after chilling twist at her readers until it seems that everyone has the potential to be a villain.

I am a longtime fan of Wendy Walker, and though I am constantly surprised by her attention to detail and perfect pacing, I always feel like I have some idea of what to expect. That ended this week. DON’T LOOK FOR ME is one of the most legitimately thrilling and terrifying suspense novels I have ever read. Although this is not the sort of mystery where the conclusion comes totally out of left field, I feel confident in saying that very few readers will guess it. Walker never shies away from exposing the more violent and dark corners of society, but without a doubt this is her scariest book yet. Everything from the small-town vibe to the dangerous man and the creepy kid sent chills down my spine, and I am not ashamed to admit that I jumped a few times while reading.

As always, Walker infuses her writing with a real-world observation, this time about the dual role played by women, especially mothers. Molly’s guilt about Annie's death is painful enough, but even worse is Nic’s complex emotions about her mother. Molly is the source of Nic’s warmest, most love-filled memories, but she also has caused her unending grief, and Walker thrusts this dichotomy into the spotlight to open up a larger conversation about how we as a society view women, particularly those who care for us. When we meet Molly’s family, they are united only in their hatred of her, and yet she has provided them all with great comfort by shouldering this guilt quietly and without any sense of revenge or retribution.

I think any woman who reads about Molly and Nic will find something to relate to, and the pressure each feels is painfully familiar. Walker’s ability to weave trauma into her books has always been one of her strengths, but her dissection of motherhood feels like a new height for her, one that she reaches with her dependably sharp insight and emotional acuity.

Don't Look for Me was a compelling, suspenseful novel, of a broken family, coping with death, and facing an abduction. Told with much depth of sorrow and guilt, ultimately overcome with family bonds and bravery. Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the e-book for review. All opinions are my own.

This book focuses on Molly Clarke, a woman whose family hate her after she accidentally killed her younger daughter in a freak accident and who feels the best thing she can do is disappear. She then gets caught in a storm and events take a turn she could never have anticipated.

It looks as though she has finally disappeared like she has wanted to do for the last five years since her daughters death. Her older daughter receives some information that makes her doubt her previous notion of her mother just walking away from her old life.

This book was a page turner.

Thank you so much for this ARC!

I typically love Wendy Walker's books, however, this was definitely not at the top of my list. It was really difficult to get my attention. I did not enjoy the characters and had a hard time getting through it. Will continue to be a fan and await her next book!

Bravo to Wendy Walker, a new author to me. Thrillers are not my go-to genre, but this one pulled me in from the start, slowly building from horrible to horror. Wow!

Five years ago a terrible confluence of events destroyed the Clarke family. Molly was slowly turning the blind corner into their driveway, when 9 year old Annie, ran out into the street, and was killed almost instantly. Five years later, Molly feels like neither her husband or other two children love her or even want her around. After driving 2 hours to watch her son play football, he doesn't even acknowledge her, before she turns around to drive back another 2 hours. A hurricane is approaching Connecticut and she runs out of gas. She thinks about just disappearing in a field; would her family even notice? But then she does disappear. Did she walk away or was she taken? Her daughter Nicole has her own guilt, especially about her last parting words. While the police decide she just left, Nicole is not convinced. Is she trusting and believing in the right people? The suspense builds as they both are in danger. Who has Molly? So many suspects.

I red an ARC from NetGalley.com This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

Molly Clarke is a grieving mother who’s still affected by the death of her child from years before. She does her best to stay present in her marriage and for her other children, but when she disappears one night it’s not too hard for people to believe that it’s of her own doing, in an attempt to assuage her guilt and give her family a chance to start over. But facts come to light and her daughter refuses to believe that her mother would just leave them like that, so she heads back to the scene of the disappearance to do some digging.

This was good. There were a lot of characters and it was satisfying to see it come together. It was personally hard for me to read because there’s a death of a child in it, and those involved reflect on their grief pretty regularly. Outside of that though it wasn’t particularly gory or violent. Small town secrets, people who aren’t really what they seem, and complicated relationships between mother and daughter. There you have it! I liked it, but it’s probably not one that’s going to stick with me a long time. There were a few points that were too far fetched for me to believe. Good on audio though- I liked the narration and flew through it over the course of two days.

As long as the plot is somewhat believable, I’ve been known to read all night long just to finish a book, if it’s THAT good, but once I finished this book, I wanted the last 3-4 hours of my lost sleep time back. The book itself started out a little slow but picked up a nice steady pace only to have it fall completely flat at the end.

The ending was not even close to being realistic, not by a long shot. It’s almost like the author was looking for the quickest way to end, without a lot of fanfare, just whatever, got it done, wrap it up.

I shelved this book for a few months. I started and got about 40% through and just couldn’t get into it. I picked it back up and decided to give it another try. I am glad I did!

The beginning half was very slow and like I said before, hard to get into. However the second half was unputdownable. There were two points of view in the story, Nic and Molly, but it was very easy to follow. There were definitely twists and turns and when you think you know everything, more information comes to light. I was pleasantly surprised. All of the characters were believable and not too far fetched, which helped relate.

I would recommend this book!

This is my first novel by Wendy Waller but I would like to read more

This focuses on Molly Clarke, a woman whose family hate her after she accidentally killed her younger daughter and who feels the best thing she can do is disappear. She then gets caught in a storm and events take a turn she could never have anticipated.

This is told from Molly's perspective and that of her daughter. It covers obsession, manipulation and untruths. I found it a compelling read and I didn't want it to end

Wendy Walker does a fantastic job building suspense and developing meaningful characters in this psychological thriller. The narratives alternate between Molly, a woman believed to have walked away from her life after a family tragedy years earlier, and Nic, her daughter who will stop at nothing to bring her mom home.
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I loved the dual narrative, being able to see the world through each characters' eyes as the plot unfolds. Their interactions with various characters, while we try to put the pieces together, added to the mounting mystery of it all.
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I also found the characters relatable and complex. Molly is a mom first, but her thoughts and reactions are genuine and very real. Nicole deals with loss in her own way, but she is a smart, intuitive young adult, and I was rooting for her the whole way.

This was my first Wendy Walker book, and it won’t be my last. The mystery was well-written, with plenty of fun twists. I enjoyed seeing the mother/daughter relationship from both sides, and was rooting for the main character from the first moment. There were some really likable and really unlikeable characters, and they were all necessary to the plot. I really enjoyed this well-written thriller!

A claustrophobic, anxiety-inducing psychological thriller that will keep you up past your bedtime. It explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters through relatable, flawed characters while keeping up a nail-biting pace right until the shocking ending.

Molly accidentally ran over and killed her nine year old daughter. The family, understandably, has never been the same.... Molly’s guilt, her husband’s loss, her oldest daughter’s guilt for the role she might have played in the tragedy.

One stormy night, returning from her son’s football game four hours away, Molly’s car runs out of gas and she disappears. After finding her car abandoned and later receiving a note from her, it is assumed that she just “walked away”. But daughter Nicole has never given up on finding her mother.

I really didn’t like this book for about the first half, but then Walker had me and I couldn’t put it down. Red herrings keep you guessing in this psychological thriller. Although told from different points of view and timelines, it was never confusing. The ending was a bit contrived, though.

Wendy Walker's Don't Look for Me is a compelling thriller about an abduction that's made to look like a voluntary departure.

Molly Clarke's life has been in tatters for five years. She drove the car that accidentally killed her small daughter Annie, and is unable to forgive herself. Her teen son, adult daughter and husband all seem to be rejecting her.

Molly simply wants to walk away from it all, but when she starts to do so, she gets something she never bargained for, and certainly didn't deserve.

I was surprised I liked this one as much as I did. The description itself didn't really fully catch me. It's a premise that could either be really good or a little too overdone. This book definitely could have done one of two ways but luckily it was definitely the good way.

Excellent writing and well paced plot really set this one above. There were so many pieces to the puzzle to put together. I liked the POV break of mother and daughter and trying to figure out how this would all play out. A lot of interesting twists and surprises. The last few lines, though, ugh. shivers. Well done, I really liked it!

I found this book to be really creepy at the beginning, but as I got going, it lost some of its luster. The author wrote the story with several characters “eligible” to be the bad guy, but it became obvious (even to ME, who never thinks enough to “figure it out”!), who it was, and so where I hoped for twists to prove me wrong, I didn’t get that. It was an enjoyable read, though, and I send my thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

My first Wendy Walker, but certainly won't be my last! Fast-paced, twisty, thought-provoking...perfect fall fall mystery/thriller reading!

Holy wow. Don't Look For Me is a gripping story sure to be an absolute binge read for thriller lovers. My heart was racing the entire time I read the book- the tension in this one is high and constant, with one unexpected twist after another.

Walker did an excellent job crafting this story and I look forward to reading more from her. The story was told from two differing timelines a few weeks apart -from the night of Molly's perspective, starting the night of her disappearance, and then from the point of view of her daughter-Nicole a few weeks later as she looks for answers about what happened to her mother.

Many thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I wasn't sure about this book at first because I was afraid that it would be overly graphic and violent for no reason. I was pleasantly surprised. It was suspenseful but not heavy-handed. My only criticism is that there are a lot of characters that pop up and I would occasionally get confused in-between readings.