A clever suspenseful mystery surrounding a troubled mother Molly, who disappears in a severe rainstorm. Immediately, most people believe she disappeared voluntarily because of her grief due to her involvement in the accidental death of one of her daughters. This belief solidifies with a note found asking people not to look for her. But Molly's other daughter Nic cannot let go of the fact that her mom would not just leave. A strange phone call regarding the rainy night compels Nic to go look for her mother. The suspense builds rapidly as nothing about her disappearance is making sense. A very satisfying read where 2 storylines converge together for a great ending. 4.5 stars.

Five years ago, Molly and John Clarke's youngest daughter died. It changed their family forever, devastating Molly and John. Molly blames herself. Their son, Evan, is now at boarding school and eldest daughter Nicole, 21, has a fractured relationship with her mom. Then Molly disappears coming back from visiting Evan. Everyone says she left on purpose, backed up by the note they find. The police call it a "walk away." Molly's car was abandoned by a gas station, the note discovered at a nearby hotel. But what really happened to Molly? Nicole is convinced her mother wouldn't just walk away from them, no matter how bad things had become.

"This was her fault and now she had to make it right. She had to find her mother."

Oh my gosh. I read this book in one breathless day, despite working for 12 hours. It's an utterly and completely spellbinding thriller. I read the last half in one sitting, desperate to know what became of Molly. Walker gives us a twisty thriller that is filled with surprises. It's dramatic, beyond readable, and heartbreaking at times. Told from Molly and Nicole's point of views, it's amazing. I love a book that can shock me, and this is that book.

I'm not going to offer much more, as it's best to go into this one blind. Just know that, hands down, it's one of the best thrillers I've read this year. 4.5+ stars. Pick up this book!

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Press and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

Molly is on a country road when she runs out of gas. She is walking toward the gas station when a guy and his daughter pick her up. They take her to their home and she becomes a prisoner.
Molly's daughter Nicole had an argument with her mother. She doesn't believe her mother would run away from her and her brother and their father. Nicole is determined to find her mother.
This is a great suspenseful book. I highly recommend reading this book.

Molly Clarke is driving home after visiting her son at boarding school. A storm is coming. She is out of gas. She is lost in her thoughts. Her family is not what it once was. Her son didn’t even talk to her during the visit, her husband barely looks at her, and her daughter has turned to drinking to cope with the tragedy their family is dealing with. The police think all this has led to Molly walking away from her family. But her daughter Nic is not so sure. There are things that don’t add up. She returns to the small town where her mothers car was found to investigate just exactly what happened that night. But does she really want to know the truth? Or is the truth going to cost her her life? This book had some AMAZING twists. I was hit with whiplash reading this book! If I could give this book ten stars, I would! Cancel your plans, get some snacks, and settle in. This is one book that you truly will NOT want to put down until you found out just what happened in the small town of Hastings.

Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker was a thriller that will keep you captivated from start to finish. One day Molly Clarke’s life changed and not in a good way. Now she is living with guilt and loss. But is that enough to drive her away from her family, even if she feels they hate her? From here we are taken on a page turning journey that will keep us at the edge of our seats!

Happy reading!

“Don’t Look For Me” unfolds step by step in two deliberate narratives, starting with Molly Clark’s first person account; she has a husband John, a daughter Nicole, and a son Evan. On “Day One,” Molly agonizes that she is not a good mother, that her husband does not love her anymore. Why? Because of what she did. She drives and drives until on a deserted road in a terrible storm, she runs out of gas. A truck stops; a man and young child offer a ride. They have been waiting for her; they knew she was coming, and they know what she did.

The account shifts to Nicole’s narrative on “Day Thirteen.” It is not easy to disappear, people need money, a place to stay, and food; all of these things can be traced. But disappear Molly did, and she left a note. “Don’t look for me,” it stated. The dual narratives of Molly and Nicole continue, moving back and forth in time until the stories merge. The events are suspenseful and unsettling; the pace is slow and unhurried with deliberate details and events that seem ordinary, but are far from it. Then, things change dramatically and tragically on “Day Eighteen.”

Walker takes readers on an intense and disturbing journey. Clues gradually pile up and point to an ending that seems clear, until it turns into something else, something unexpected. I received a review copy of “Don’t Look For Me” from Wendy Walker and St Martin’s Press. It will keep readers turning page after page.

A huge Wendy Walker fan, I was so excited for this one! If you LOVE a good thriller, this one is for you. A complete page-turner that has you cringing and a little scared to turn the page to find out what will happen. We have alternating points of view from the mother and daughter throughout the book which keeps you on your toes and second-guessing how it will end. Wendy's books always have incredible pacing where you can't put it down but the story never feels out of control.
I will say, as a mom, I found this a little hard to read- a bit triggering for me. I don't do well with any stories where young children are seemingly in harm's way so this took me a bit to get through even though its something you could finish off in one day if you REALLY wanted to do so!
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC. I look forward to reading more from Wendy in the future!

Don’t Look for me was a great psychological thriller. The characters were well developed. The plot has enough twists to keep you guessing.. After a terrible accident a family is torn apart. But would a mother really just leave? Enough twists and turns to keep you wanting to finish.

It's been a while since a book grabbed total hold of my attention. The suspense factor of this book was brilliant! I couldn't put this one down untill I finished it.
It's a dark story that grabbed a hold of me from chapter one. This story is a perfect example of why Wendy Walker is a masterful psychological suspense author
.
Imagine a mother walking away from her family from her entire life. Imagine what would drive a mother to do such a thing. What her family would do? Would they believe she'd do such a thing? Would they give up looking for her and move on with their lives?

The narrators of this story are Molly Clarke and her daughter Nicole. It's a story about family tragedy full of suspense, mystery, and twist that make you want to keep turning the pages late through the night.

Molly runs out of gas during a storm and leaves her car at the side of the road to go and find help but she’s not seen again. When her clothes and a note are found at a nearby hotel the police assume she’s walked away from her family, still grieving over the death of her youngest daughter, and they call off the search. Her eldest daughter, Nicole, however doesn’t believe her Mom would have done this and returns to the small town where Molly went missing to try and find her Mom and in doing so to make amends for her own guilt over her sisters death.

I’d heard lots of good things about this book and they were all true! I started it one evening and stayed up WAY past my bedtime as I just couldn’t put it down until I knew how it ended. The book was creepy in the best way possible and I was completely invested in both Molly and Nicole’s characters. This is the first book I’ve read by Wendy Walker and it certainly won’t be the last. Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
(4.5 stars rounded up to 5)

This is one of those suspense books that actually caused me a bit of anxiety in the first few chapters ... you know something bad is about to happen, and you want to keep reading but not at the same time !

The book is told from two POVs - Molly, a guilt ridden mother who accidentally killed her youngest daughter a few years earlier, and her oldest daughter Nick, who is now searching for her missing mother .

I enjoyed this story and this author’s writing style . The story moved along at the right pace and Kept me guessing , and the twist at the end was quite well done .

Book rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Cover rating : 🌟 🌟 🌟


Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for a review copy.

Finally a thriller that was actually super creepy to me. I was uncomfortable reading this at night and wanted to save it for daylight!! Highly recommend Don’t Look for Me, as this has just become my favorite Wendy Walker novel yet.

I liked this book. It was a little too contrived at the end, but still had some surprise twists that I always like.

An addictive thriller with twists and turns! Molly Harper is a woman of mystery and Wendy Webb is the perfect author to tell this story. Thoroughly enjoyable, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!

Holy moly guys she’s done it again! I'm a huge fan of Wendy Walker's work as any quick peek at my review list will show (Emma in the Night remains one of my favorite thrillers of all time.) and this one just deepens that trend. Don’t Look For Me is instantly un-put-downable from page one and, I won’t lie, I got pretty annoyed at real life getting in the way of my reading it.

I instantly connected with both POV characters, a mother and daughter caught up in all kinds of dangerous crazy when they were both already hanging by threads. Their development is superb, the pacing fast but perfect, the plot mysterious and thought provoking, the reveal shocking. I was thrown for quite a loop by the ending which of course is a lot of fun as a thriller reader and the chills from all the creepy, strange happenings really kept me sucked in.

If you’re any kind of true crime fan, this is the novel for you as a fictional look at the worst among us in a situation that could happen in reality. I couldn’t recommend this novel more highly!

Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

A grieving family torn apart by guilt and blame over the death of a child. A mother pushed to the edge, disappearing without a trace after running out of gas in the eye of a hurricane. A family searching for two weeks before evidence surfaces that indicates she walked away from them and doesn't want to be found. Did she?

Don't Look For Me is a riveting psychological thriller that I read mostly in one sitting. I was hooked from the first few pages all the way through the end. This story unfolds through two points of view - Molly, a grieving mother and her oldest daughter Nicole who bears guilt and secrets of her own. The setting is a small, dying town in the middle of nowhere, reeking with creepy vibes and a slew of suspicious characters that kept me guessing. A frantic pace pushes this story forward at breakneck speed when Nic follows her gut feeling and a mysterious phone call to return to town and resume the search for her mother. All I can say is hold on for dear life as this story will knock you off your feet as these characters maneuver dangerous twists and turns. A unique support cast adds to the mystery and intrigue of this dark tale. And while I figured out part of it, I'd was still stunned by the shocker at the end. Don't Look For Me is another 2020 Favorite. Highly recommended!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of this book. I enjoyed reading the book and highly recommend it.

Favorite Quote:

Not one of these “friends” had stuck around after she’d fallen off the social ladder. And it had not been gradual. The day she was expelled was the day her phone stopped ringing or buzzing or pinging. It was as though she’d caught a deadly virus. A social virus that no one wanted to catch.


My Review:

This was my first taste of Wendy Walker and I can smugly state I picked an excellent starting point to sample her lovely wares. Her storylines were frighteningly realistic and so emotive and tautly written that my kindle seemed to be vibrating from the tension and I am now in need of a spa day to work out the knots in my neck and catch my breath, which I often caught myself holding during perusal. This was a complex, gripping, and heart-squeezing tale laced with tragedy, grief, intrigue, and family drama. There were numerous tangled webs as well as oddly compelling characters to unravel, and this wily wordsmith kept me guessing on several fronts. I fell right into her evocative prose, which smoothly scrolled through my gray matter with sharp imagery and heart-wrenching scenarios. It was marvelous.

Molly Clarke is missing. After a 4 day search party turns up nothing in the town of her disappearance, a note signed by Molly is found that essentially says "Don't look for me." Her daughter Nicole ("Nic") doesn't believe her mother would just walk away from her life, though it was stricken by tragedy, and begins searching for her. She makes connections in the small town of Hastings where her mother was last seen, and those she thinks she can trust become suspects.

This book was excellent. Its pacing was remarkable and it was hard to put down. I loved the dual perspectives between Nic and Molly, and looked forward to finding out who captured Molly. I had a lot of guesses as to what happened, but was completely wrong. I loved this book until the last few chapters - I didn't love the ending. Although unexpected, it seemed misaligned with the careful clues we were given throughout the book of who crafted Molly's disappearance. Still, this book was definitely worthwhile and a quick read!

Wow this book is everything a thriller should be! I knew I was in for a crazy ride after the first chapter, so many times I was yelling “OMG” it’s intense, twisty, and unputdownable! It has been two weeks that Molly Clarke disappeared, the news and Hastings Police Department believed she walked away from her life. But her daughter, Nicole, doesn’t believe her mom would and is determined to find the truth. Well we come to find that Hastings is the exit you drive past for gas, it’s pretty much run down and the towns folk all have secrets. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ebook ARC. This is my honest review.