This was one of those unputdownable thrillers that I read in just one sitting. 

Molly Clarke gets caught in a hurricane one night and a stranger and his daughter pick her up to offer shelter...except molly instantly has a weird feeling in her gut about it. To everyone else, it looks as if Molly just decided to walk away from her family (which, to be fair, she was kinda considering). But her daughter is haunted by the last words she said to her mother and is determined to find her.

I would consider myself well-versed in thrillers, but I couldn’t predict the ending at all, which really impressed me. There were a couple theories I had in mind, one of which turned out to be true, but then there’s another twist at the end that will just blow your mind. This is a top tier storyline. 

I also really loved how Walker explored the themes of grief, loss, family, and the love of a mother. Highly recommend!

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the e-ARC!

Don't Look for Me has all of the elements I usually enjoy in thrillers, but there was something about it that fell flat for me. Though there were a lot of twists in the story, I managed to predict all of them ahead of time, which was disappointing.

Plus, the characters were kind of one-dimensional, and as the story went on and more characters were introduced to keep you guessing, I began losing track of who was who. It started off strong and kept me reading, but eventually I just wanted the story to end...and it (predictably) did.

I really enjoyed Walker's previous book The Night Before, but this one let me down. I gave it 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC! 

Don't Look For Me follows Molly Clarke as she is travelling home from watching her son's football game. There is a hurricane like storm brewing and her car is running out of gas. Molly is questioning whether she should continue home where her husband and adult daughter don't want her or just disappear. Molly is living with the guilt of a terrible accident that happened five years ago. It has torn her family apart and she doesn't have the strength to help bring them all back together. In fact she's sure they will be better off without her. Stopped on the side of the road in a torrential downpour she takes the first ride offered to her. It is a man and a little girl. (As an aside, when we meet the girl, Alice, she is wearing a facial mask. The author explains it is like ones a medical person would wear. You know, like the ones we are all wearing now in 2020. Just felt like, oh, this was written before the pandemic, as I read it.) From there this thriller takes off. 

The story is told from Molly's POV and her daughter, Nicole's. I like that Walker gave more background on the family of Molly and Nicole before we started meeting the other townspeople who might be suspects. I had the kidnapper figured out before the reveal, but didn't guess part of the ending. It was not an edge of your seat thriller, but it was engaging. I do wish Alice had been given more of a voice. Or at least have the author acknowledge her creepiness came from the environment she was raised in. It should be evident to the reader, but still felt strange that Molly made it seem like the girl was just born knowing how to manipulate people. It didn't sit right with me. 

Overall it was a quick, entertaining read. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller.

Don’t Look for Me was such a wild ride. There were so many twists and turns. It alternates perspectives between Molly, the missing woman, and her daughter Nic, frantically searching for her, and I thought the structure really worked well. I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of thrillers!

One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life.
She doesn't want to be found.
Or at least, that's the story.
The car abandoned miles from home.
The note found at a nearby hotel.
The shattered family that couldn’t be put back together.
They called it a “walk away.”
It happens all the time.
Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over.
But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke

This has to be the best thriller of the year, loved it! love the way Wendy alternates the timeline of the characters, it is a thriller filled with suspense and a couple of twists, the end is unexpected, it is better going into this one knowing as little as possible. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this E-Arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ever since Nicole's younger sister, Annie, died, things have never been the same. But would her mother, Molly, decide that it was better to walk away from it all? Nicole doesn't think so. So when a woman turns up one day saying that she saw Molly the day she disappeared, Nicole knows that it is up to her to bring her mom back. 

The dynamics between the members of the Clarke family, the guilt, the anger, the heartbreak are powerfully illustrated, but it's Alice, with her so, sooooooo creepy behavior, who stole the show in this book. 

If you enjoy a good psychological thriller, don't miss this one! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

THE DETAILS✎
❐ MYSTERY⬦ SUSPENSE ⬦ THRILLER 
❐ FAMILY TRAGEDY
❐ DUAL POV'S --BETWEEN MOTHER AND DAUGHTER
❐ FANTASTICALLY PACED
❐ INTENSE & TWISTY
❐ LENGTH OF AUDIO ➯ 9 HOURS, 51 MINUTES
❐ I LISTENED ON LIBBY THROUGH MY LIBRARY BUT I PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED AN ARC VIA NETGALLEY IN EXCHANGE FOR A HONEST REVIEW --I PREFER AUDIO!

There isn't much more I can say without giving anything away...and I don't want to give anything away...because this is too good.  

I would have liked a second narrator for either the daughter or the mother...but since it didn't have that, I will say Therese Plummer did a phenomenal job with the two different voices...giving each one a slightly different inflection so I didn't really confuse them.   

In closing, this story will keep you guessing until the end...giving you just enough clues to keep you trying to put it together and work it out...and even then it will surprise you.  So glad I was able to listen to this all at one time because it was unstoppable...I'm also pretty sure that it's unputdownable if you choose to read it, instead.

BREAKDOWN✎
Narration ➯ 5 STARS
Plot ➯ 5/5
Characters ➯ 5/5
The Feels ➯ 5/5
Pacing ➯ 5/5
Addictiveness ➯ 5/5
Theme, Tone or Intensity ➯ 5/5
Originality/Believability ➯ 5/5
Flow (Writing Style/Ease of Listening) ➯ 5/5
Twisty-ness/Mystery ➯ 5/5
Ending ➯ 5/5
SUMMATION ➯ 5 STARS

This was a fast paced story about a woman who gets kidnapped and her daughter who will not accept that she just ran away. The root of the book is the mother daughter relationship and how tragedy tears them apart. The whole family is trying to deal with the death of the youngest sibling, when their mother just disappears. After searching she can't be found a letter shows up in a hotel room saying that she left. For some reason her oldest daughter can not accept this and keeps searching even though the authorities have given up. Good fast moving, mystery told from the mother and daughter's perspectives.

Survivor's guilt is a terrible thing. Especially when it's a parent who is grieving the loss of a child. We all know that parents shouldn't out live their children. So when the unspeakable happens it's no wonder that Molly Clarke isn't the woman that she used to be. 

Was that enough for her to just walk away from everything? To turn her back and head for a new life that didn't contain this amount of pain didn't seem like much of a stretch. Anyone in her shoes would jump at the chance to do the same. To start over and pretend that they haven't endured the most painful event a parent ever could. 

A heart wrenching and tearful journey through the loss of a child and therefore the loss of a life once lived.

One night Molly Clarke just doesn’t show up at home. Her family finds a note in a hotel telling them she’s gone and not to look for her.
Pretty open and shut...right?

This book was the perfect bing read.
This book was so fast paced, I was hooked from the very beginning.
In alternate time lines this book follows Molly and her daughter leading up to and after Molly’s disappearance. I loved both characters. They were both dealing with some very heavy emotions in their own way and I was so invested.

This novel deals with some really heavy topics like grief and guilt and I love when a thriller can tug on my heart strings while still being an exciting read. 

I’m a little embarrassed to say this was my first Wendy Walker but I definitely plan to go and read her backlist now.

The Clarke family had their world turned upside down and now Molly Clarke runs out of gas on a stormy night near the town of Hastings. The next day her car is found, yet she is not. It is believed that she has walked away from her family which seems like a possibility after the tragedy and grief she has gone through. Her daughter, Nicole, is not convinced that this is the case and goes back down to the small town to find her mother. While there, she encounters the people of this small town all have secrets of their own. 

Told back and forth from both of their perspectives this thriller kept me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning all the way until the very end. I felt very anxious at times and had to put it down and take some breaks to calm my nerves, but also needed to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. I love thrillers that make you think everyone is a suspect and you find yourself trying to decide which one it could be. 5 wonderful stars from me and I can't wait to read more from Wendy Walker!

~ Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I liked this book right up until the first twist. I think it came too early and by the time the big twist came, I just didn't care. I wanted more suspense which means the book kinda fell flat for me. I want my thrillers to leave me breathless and stunned and this was just predictable and not in a good way.

Don't Look for Me is a creepy, twisted, compulsively readable story that I wanted to stop reading but just couldn't until I finished it. The characters were very real and well done, and the plot so twisted... The ending was perfect.

*4.5 stars rounded up!

It is a dark and stormy night when Molly Clarke runs out of gas as she nears a small rural town. Even the gas station has been closed by the storm. In desperation, she flags down an approaching truck and accepts a ride from the driver. But afterwards Molly disappears...

The story is told from two points of view: Molly's and her daughter Nicole. Everyone believes that Molly has run off and deserted her family but Nicole won't give up the search for her mother. 

This is a family torn apart by a tragedy but these two women seem to rise above this as they deal with the current circumstances. I appreciated how they grew in strength and understanding. 

Lots of dramatic tension kept me turning pages. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, Walker threw a great twist into the mix. Exciting reading! Highly recommend for thriller fans.

I was lucky enough to receive an arc from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks!

Have you ever thought of just running away and starting a new life? It's one of those fleeting, laughable thoughts we have when we are driving and our mind wanders. But you'd never act on it.. right? Did Molly Clarke act on this fleeting urge, or did something bad happen to her? That's what her daughter Nicole is trying to find out. 

This is a mystery filled with an interesting cast of characters, as Nicole navigates the town of Hastings in search of her mother. Told in the perspectives of Nicole and Molly, this book had me flying through, trying to figure out the mystery of both Molly and an unsolved disappearance of another young woman, Daisy. Everything is intertwined until the very end where a SHOCKING twist changes everything! This is a must read for thriller lovers, as I really enjoyed this book and Wendy Walkers writing style!

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
Don't Look for Me by Wendy Walker is a chilling domestic thriller about a mother, Molly Clarke, who disappears one stormy night, leaving almost everyone believing she had left her family to start a new life. Almost everyone except Molly's daughter, Nicole, who is determined to find the truth about her mother's disappearance. The story is told through 2 different perspectives-Molly and Nicole's. It is a creepy story, that kept me awake at night wanting to find out more. I would definitely recommend this one to domestic thriller fans!

Wendy Walker does it again, with a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. Her writing is taut and fine-tuned, and the pacing ever so gradually picks up, until you are suddenly flipping pages, trying to figure out the final outcome. Definitely a suspense-filled ride, that just goes faster as the story continues.

Such an excellent, creepy thriller! I don't really want to say what this book is about beyond a mother's disappearance--this is one where it's better to find that out as you go along. But it's well-done, and Wendy Walker was successfully able to keep me flipping pages with an ever, growing sense of dread and unease. Perfect if you're looking for a thriller you can really get immersed in.

This is a well written amazing suspense novel. The suspense starts right away and doesn’t ease up. Molly is a wife and mother and is struggling with her relationships with her husband and children. Her youngest daughter is dead and Molly is the reason why. She unfortunately hit her with her car and although Molly wasn’t really at fault she blames herself as does her family. Molly is now heading home late at night and trying to beat a massive storm on the way. She runs out of gas in a desolate area and accepts a ride from a man and his daughter. This is where the trouble really begins for her. She is kidnapped and there is a search for her. Since she was having family problems the authorities and her family question ‘did something sinister happen or did she just walk away?’ The story is fast paced and it kept me spellbound the whole time. There are so many twists and turns and so many suspects. I have loved the author’s previous books and this is another wonderful book by her. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough on this one.

This was my first Wendy Walker book, but it won't be my last! What a tight mystery!

The story centers around a family who has suffered an unimaginable tragedy and the guilt that follows. Molly Clarke and her daughter Nicole are both dealing with this guilt in their own ways but not necessarily in good ways. Nicole is on a self destructive path and Molly is powerless to do anything about it with the burden of guilt crushing her own psyche. And then Molly disappears. What happened to her?

Walker delivers believable characters, that you care a lot about whether you are rooting for them or pulling against them. You are emotionally invested in the outcome.  Everything you want in a mystery is here: an intriguing plot, a creepy, almost Gothic setting, good guys, bad guys, vice, corruption, human weakness, and a satisfying outcome.

Don't miss this one! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.