I'm not...sure about this one. I don't want to give plot points away so I'll just say: the plausibility of this is iffy at best. I found myself rolling my eyes a little too often. I really enjoyed The Night Before so I was disappointed in this follow up, but it won't deter me from reading the next Wendy Walker book. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy.

What a page turner! From the storm, to Molly being picked up by Mick and Alice, to the climactic scene in the woods, I couldn’t put this one down. Not only was it suspenseful, it was also a tale of love and just how far you would go to find someone you love. This book, I can honestly say, I loved!

This was a fast paced read. It was well written and I appreciated the toggle in chapters between Nicole and her mother. I don't know that I would have requested this book had I more information on the plot of this story. It is a plot that would not bother most, but for some reason, it is a story I don't really enjoy reading about. This book was not for me, but will definitely be for most that are looking for a propulsive thriller. Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC.

A bit slow in the beginning and then more than a bit unbelievable as it went forward. However, I did read the entire book and I did want to know what happened. In the end the author ties up the book by bringing all the answers together in a dialogue between the main characters. The author also left it open to have a second book thereby making this a series. I like Mark Edwards writing and will read some of his other novels. I was give an copy of this book by NetGalley.

Lots of twists and turns in Don’t Look For Me, the new book from Wendy Walker. Molly Clarke has disappeared, and all signs point to her walking away from her family after a tragedy, but is there more to the story? Walker crafts a spellbinding thriller, told masterly in alternating chapters from different perspectives and days apart. Great characters, roller coaster crazy, and a great ending. Excellent story, 5 bright stars!
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book "Don't Look For Me" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. I love Wendy Walker's books. This was an amazing book. You really can't put this book down. Fast paced and suspenseful for sure.

Wendy Walker once again delivers a first-rate sizzler of a novel sparked by a fascinating premise and peopled by richly developed and instantly recognizable characters. This is a read that delivers on every level--pacing, characterization, setting--and sets the bar high for other suspense writers.

Jayme C (Brunettes like books too!)'s Reviews > Don't Look for Me

Don't Look for Me
by Wendy Walker (Goodreads Author)

Jayme C (Brunettes like books too!)'s review
Mar 07, 2020 · edit


it was amazing




bookshelves: buddy-read, mystery-suspense, netgalley, publisher-s-invitation, publisher-s-request


WALK AWAY : To stop being involved in a situation because it is difficult to deal with

That is what the police decide that Molly did, just 4 days after her car was found abandoned after a storm. After all, there was a note...

And, she certainly had a valid reason to leave...GUILT.
And, the blame and scorn of her husband and children.

But “there was also the reward money. A million dollars for her mother’s safe return. Five hundred for tips leading to her (whereabouts).
Nothing brought out a liar like cash.”

So when a tip came in, two weeks after Molly’s disappearance, one that sounded legitimate to her daughter, Nicole- Nic returns to the dying town of Hastings to investigate on her own.

The story is told in two narratives, both equally compelling.
Molly’s which begins the night of the storm.
And Nic’s which begins two weeks later after the “tip” comes in.

But, who, if anyone, can Nic trust?

For me, Wendy Walker’s biggest strength is her characters. They are REAL, they are FLAWED, and they make me FEEL.

I preferred “The Night Before” just slightly...as I struggled a bit with the explanation given at the conclusion of this one.. (minus .5 stars) so, I am going with 4.5 stars rounded up!

Thank You to the publishers at St. Martin’s Press for inviting me to read and review this book early, with a digital copy provided through NetGalley.

It will be available on September 15, 2020 so mark your calendars or pre-order now!

And, if you haven’t already done so, read “The Night Before” while you are waiting!

Could you ever forgive yourself if your actions lead to the death of your daughter? Five years ago, Molly was coming home when Annie ran into the road, and she hit her. The what-ifs are brutal. What if she was a minute earlier, or a minute later? Would Annie still be alive?
Her family isn't much help. Her son barely tolerates her, her once academically and athletically brilliant older daughter is spiraling out of control, and her husband can barely stand to be in the same room as Molly. What if she just walked away? Might it be the right thing to do for her family?
If you have ever read a Wendy Walker book, you'll be thinking at this point, nothing good can come from Molly's musings. One night, Molly runs out of gas during a terrible storm, and the only trace of her is her abandoned car on the side of the road. A note suggests that Molly did just walk away, but a tip suggests that she was given a ride near the town of Hastings.
Nicole decides to head back to Hastings to see if she can pick up her mother's trail. She soon realizes that she is being told one lie after another, and vows to find out what happened to Molly. Nicole keeps searching for answers and has no idea how close the truth is.
Told in alternating chapters from Molly and Nicole's perspectives, we learn whodunnit, and why. I had my ideas about who had taken Molly, and I was 100% wrong! A family torn apart by tragedy might never get the chance to recover. I could feel the pain these two women were experiencing, and nobody writes better-developed characters that you care about than Wendy Walker. I loved Emma in the Night and Don't Look For Me was a close second .4.5 stars.

5 “You’d Better Look for Me” Stars

Things have not been easy for Molly. After a tragic accident that took the life of her youngest child, things have fallen apart with her husband and other children and she’s wracked with guilt.

It almost makes sense that she walked away from her life when she ran out of gas during a storm. She left a note for her family and after a few days of searching, they try to get back to their lives.

This excellently paced and written story is told from both Molly’s perspective and her daughter Nic’s perspective. Nic isn’t quite sure her mom could just walk away, so she’s back to investigating some new leads. Will she discover the truth or is she walking into danger as well?

This one kept my interest for the whole book and the twists just kept coming. I was truly surprised at the conclusion of this one, and I thought I had figured it out, nope, not even close! This is my third Wendy Walker book and I feel like she delivers a solid read every time.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am speechless! This book is simply WOW!! Ms. Walker has written an absolutely brilliant book with not just the average twists and turns but a slam into a brick-wall shock!! This has to be one of the best books I've read so far this year.

The story moves between Day One, Day Thirteen, Day Two, Day Fourteen, Day Five, Day Sixteen, Day Seventeen, Day Eighteen and Seven Months Later. As one reads the book, these dates make more and more sense. The main characters are Molly Clarke and her family. They have suffered a great tragedy and that has splintered their world. Molly is married to John and they have a daughter Nicole, a son Evan and a daughter Annie who died five years ago at the age of nine. This tragedy is the start and end of this book - in the sense that it explains why things happen to this family.

Molly is heading home when she runs out of gas in the town of Hastings. She is picked up by a man named "Mick" and his daughter Alice. Are they her saviours or is she their prisoner? The police have all but written off Molly as someone that walked away from her family. He car is found abandoned, out of gas, her cell phone is still in its charger. When 2 days after her disappearance her credit card is used at a nearby casino resort, her clothing found in a hotel room with a note - it all but cements to police view. Nicole however doesn't give up on her mother and she arrives in Hastings to find the truth.

The other characters that build this story are Chief of Police Charles Watkins, Edith Moore (or is her name Bickman?), Officer Jared Reyes, Daisy Alice Hollander, Roger Booth, and Kurt Kent. They all have a role to play in moving the story along, confusing the issues and leaving the reader wondering just who is telling the truth.

"Mick" knows way too much about Molly's life. There is a five hundred thousand dollar reward for information on Molly - could be a motive for people to lie in town. Stories just don't add up. There was another girl that disappeared from Hastings 10 years ago, are these two events related? Things come to a head at a house on Abel Hill Lane where many shocking truths are revealed. It will leave the reader in shock once all the pieces fall into place.

Ms. Walker did a brilliant job with this book and I'm absolutely looking forward to what she writes next!

Don't Look For Me carried me away, seeing the story from two different perspectives. Everything worked to keep me caught in the story from beginning to end. I would have read this book straight through except pesky old sleep got in the way. 

Five years ago, mother of three, Molly, hit and killed her nine year old daughter, while driving her car. Grief has torn her family apart. Her husband is distant and often doesn't come home, her high achieving twenty-one year old daughter, was expelled from high school, lost her college scholarship, now drinks and sleeps with strange men, as a way of life. Her college age son won't even speak to her when she goes to watch his college games. And Molly cannot forgive herself even though her daughter's death was an accident that could not have avoided. She had done nothing wrong but her grief from losing one daughter, to death, and the rest of her family, because she was the reason her daughter died, has Molly thinking she should just walk away from them, because she thinks that is what they want. 

During a very horrendous storm, as she is driving near the little town of Hastings, Molly runs out of gas, gets out of her car to find help, and is picked up by a man in a truck. She has been thinking that this might be her chance to just leave everything. But she has second thoughts almost immediately. 

Two weeks later, the search for Molly is called off and she is deemed a "walk away", someone who has disappeared because she wanted to disappear. When her daughter, Nicole, gets a phone call from a woman who said she saw her mom get into a pickup truck on the day Molly disappeared, Nicole goes to the town to speak to the woman. The more that Nicole investigates and asks questions, the more she realizes that everybody is lying to her and she has no idea if she can trust anyone. 

The entire book had me captivated. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was my first book by Wendy Walker but won’t be my last. It had a good amount of mystery, and creepiness. I didn’t see the end coming. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Meet Molly Clarke. A middle-aged mother, in a loveless marriage, with a dead child and two others that hate her. Driving home from her son's game in a storm, Molly is hopeless. To make matters worse, her car runs out of gas a few blocks from the gas station. Walking in the pouring rain to get gas, Molly is picked up by a stranger and his daughter to drive her to the gas station. But when Molly's car is found abandoned with no signs of Molly, the police determine that given her past, she disappeared on her own accord. What really happened to Molly Clarke?

Told from alternating perspectives of Molly and her daughter Nicole, Wendy Walker pulls the curtain on what is happening to Molly while Nicole is simultaneously looking for her mother. Fast-paced, with the perfect amount of mystery. I thought I had most of the plot figured out, but there were a few excellent plot twists along the way in true Wendy Walker fashion. This book did not disappoint!

This is my very first Holy Shooty Balls read of the year!! This book was absolutely amazing!!!! It was a tense read right from the very first page and didn’t let up once!!! Not once!!! I’m absolutely blown away!!! I devoured every word!

Electrifying, compulsively readable, & absolutely unputdownable!

DON’T LOOK FOR ME by WENDY WALKER is a tense, thrilling, propulsive, and riveting psychological thriller with heart that had me totally entranced and immersed in this tale. My feelings were all over the place while I was reading this one. I was on edge, thrilled, emotional, awed, worried, scared, and excited. I was feeling so uptight and gasped so many times while I was reading this story.

WENDY WALKER delivers a suspenseful, twisty, haunting, atmospheric, well-crafted and well-written story here with quite a few surprising twists and turns. The story is told in alternating chapters and points of view between Nicole and Molly. We see and feel for Molly and everything that she is going through and we are given a front row seat into Nicole’s pursuit of finding her mother.

This story totally resonated with me on more than one level. I can’t really divulge why for the sake of spoilers but let me tell you I am absolutely blown away with the extraordinarily perceptive account of these characters and how emotionally attached I was to them.

Expected Publication Date: September 15, 2020

This book has it all! The pacing is brisk, the suspense is nerve-wracking, the twists are thrilling, the creepy vibes are chilling, the tension is non-stop and has you on the edge of your seat for the whole ride, and the ending is nothing that I saw coming which was jaw-dropping and extremely exciting. I absolutely recommend putting this amazing read on your TBR!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Wendy Walker and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read a free, electronic ARC of this novel.

Wendy Walker's books are the kind that I dive into when nothing else is hitting right; her style, pacing, and characterization just hit the spot. This was a good, intriguing mystery, though not a particularly opaque one (and I found the twist at the end totally unjustifiable). If you like Wendy Walker, you'll like this.

I really enjoyed this book. It is about a woman who accidentally ran over her youngest daughter, getting caught in a storm and being kidnapped by a stranger. After a couple of weeks of unsuccessfully looking for her, her daughter returns to the town where she went missing because of a tip-off. The story then switches from the mother's perspective in captivity and the daughter who is searching for her. Slowly the story unfolds culminating in a dramatic ending with many twists along the way. Good story, fast-paced page turner. Good summer reading.

Doesn’t the title make you want to read it ASAP?! That’s how I felt and am so glad I was able to read it. Wendy Walker did a wonderful job writing this and the characters were phenomenal!

This was SOOOO close to a 5-star for me...seriously the only thing that took the tiniest quarter of a star away was the reveal of a certain thing at a certain location at the climax of the story (it was something that came out of nowhere and didn't feel properly set up - unless I skipped a few chapters and missed it!). Honestly, until then it was like a runaway (no pun intended) freight train. Wendy Walker is a master at pacing and plotting. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thriller authors like Ruth Ware and Megan Miranda.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for sending me this digital ARC of DON'T LOOK FOR ME by wendy walker.
when molly goes missing, her family isn't sure if she left willingly (for the record, if i leave a note saying 'Don't look for me' there's a good chance i'm just being dramatic and you better get to searching) + the creepy, cagey small town adds to the suspense + unsettling & compulsively readable
*
"I feel the weight of my guilt like a rock I hold above my head. How I fight to keep it from falling. I think now that maybe it's time. Maybe I can just let it fall.
Maybe I can just walk away...
Please let me go. Let me walk away. I feel the words in my head like a prayer.
Please, they whisper. Don't look for me."
*
available for purchase september 15