Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker is a suspense filled mystery that hooks you from the very start. We meet Molly and her family a she is trying to hold her family together after the tragedy of the death of her young daughter 5 years prior. What’s so sad who is responsible for her death.
As the story opens we meet Nicole (the daughter) who has become a wild child. The husband (who has become very distant) and Evan (who is at a boarding school) through Molly thinking about them as she makes her way back home during a storm. She runs out of gas right before a gas station that is closed because of the storm. What is she to do? She starts walking and a truck comes by and offers her a ride.
And then she is gone. The police called it “a walk away”, but Nicole doesn’t believe it. But all leads show that’s what happened…but did it? I highly recommend this book for those that love a good mystery. You won’t be disappointed.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC for an honest opinion.

I read this book i December 2020

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve read all of Wendy Walker’s books and this is again a thrill ride. I didn’t have it figured out and there were tons of odd clues. A story of many broken people. How to put your life back together after tragedy can be very long and painful.

Molly feels the need to give so much more to her two children since the death of her youngest daughter. Her outpouring isn't always received well. As she returns home from a trip to her son's boarding school she runs out of gas and the weather is awful. Should she accept the ride from a stranger? When she doesn't return home and the search leads nowhere her daughter sets out on her own to find out more. Even with a note left behind Nicole knows this is not how her mother would behave. When a tip gives a lead she goes on her own to find out more. This book is scary and full of dark moments and people who are not at all who they say they are. I loved the adrenaline this book gave me!

This book started kind of slow for me, I wasn't really invested, didn't much care for the characters, wasn't really interested in the outcome...until it stopped setting it up and really got into the "meat" of it. Then I was all in!! There were several red herrings so it wasn't 100% clear who the "bad guy" was until the end, and even then, when you thought it was all tied up and you were just waiting for the "where are they now" portion, there were still surprises. Very nicely done, I'm very interested in more from this author, she knows how to turn things on a dime!

Wowza! I couldn't put this book down. I won't give anything away because I think this is best going in blind on this one. There's lots of twists and turns.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the ending but overall I highly recommend this book to friends that love a good, suspense filled twisty thriller.

I am a fan of Wendy Walker and Don't Look For me Doesn't disappoint.

This was complex, twisty and fast paced. I read this in one day, a perpetual page turner. It grabs you doesn't let go till the last page.

Molly's disappearance was a total mystery. No one can figure it out and she's thought to have left on her own accord after many family trials. This story has many ups and downs and I couldn't put it down. Thank God for Nicole not giving up, Molly not giving up, and Nicole having the sense to not trust ANYONE. Such a thrill to ride along while reading this book. Highly Recommend.

4 stars

Another winner from Wendy Walker, which is why she is one of my “go-to” authors. She certainly knows how to keep the tension high and always manages to throw you some surprises and curve balls.

This story is told in alternating viewpoints of Molly and her daughter Nic (Nicole) during different timelines that ultimately merge at a heart stopping end. I don’t want to go into any of the plot points, but in typical Walker fashion, she delves into the shades of gray of human psychology and really makes you think and feel for these characters.

I highly recommend this book as it is one that you will not want to put down.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my copy of this book via NetGalley

I could not put this down once I began reading. I honestly never expected to feel such heartbreak for a character in a thriller. Dislike, yes. Creating unlikable characters seems to be a trademark of this genre. Every time I turned the page during Molly's story, I felt my heart break a little more for her. Add to that the twists and turns as her daughter impressively investigates her mother's disappearance, and I was hooked until the end.

Molly Clarke, mother of three, struggles with the loss of her youngers daughter Annie. Even worse with the circumstances surrounding her death. Her husband is cold and distant, her kids ignore her and say the most hurtful things imaginable. That doesn't stop Molly from driving hours to support her son during his game, despite the incoming hurricane. Even if he pretends she isn't there...
When Molly doesn't return home from her son's game and her car is found, abandoned near a gas station, cell phone left behind, her family wonders, "Did Molly really leave or did something happen?" It's up to Molly's daughter Nicole to find the answers, and she will no matter what.

Absolutely loved this story! Looking forward to reading more books by this author! Highly recommend!

I thoroughly enjoy thrillers. Don't Look for Me, while it got off to a rough start for me, was no exception. However the twist at the end was so completely out of left field knocked this book down a notch for me.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

I could not put this book down. I kept wanting to continue reading to find out what happened. I need to read more of Wendy Walker's books! Thank you to NetGalley for the copy.

My Review:
It’s a decent thriller! The storyline is kind of haunting me! The accident that involves mom and kid was obnoxious !! Couldn’t imagine it straight even! Let alone sink into the thoughts while reading the whole story !! The characters were ok, the narration could have been more fast-paced at times! The climax was not clear at all! I don’t know why she didn’t finish it properly ?? Why should have that unnecessary confusion about it? If you are looking for a good decent psychological thriller you would like it!

Thoughts while reading:
The daughter son and husband characters were portrayed equally evil and so we could downright hate them without any second thoughts.!img_8478
If the husband could be punished appropriately in the story It would give enough justice, why is it always women should suffer???img_8479
I couldn’t believe someone could hide that much big girl and mom from the outside world for that many years and so it kind of dilutes the grip.img_8480
And the mental mom climax could be so much better! That unnecessary drama and confusion was one more strike on this story!

The timeline of this thriller by Wendy Walker is tight - taking place over about three weeks with some flashbacks to a family tragedy from several years earlier. It's the case of a missing woman - although not everyone is convinced she went missing. Some think she walked away from her life.

Told in dual mother and daughter perspectives, we see parallel portraits of grief and terror as Nicole searches for her mother and the secrets and lies multiply. There were some less compelling parts of this book that I won't give away, but all in all, it was an engaging thriller.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I began reading this book not knowing what to expect. However within the first few pages I was gripped and had to stop myself from reading into the early hours of the morning to finish this on a work night. Beautifully written with captivating twists and turns which bring the story to life. You become invested in the characters early on, and, the ending will definitely not disappoint! An essential read.

This was a good one! Many mysterious threads that Molly's daughter, Nicole, is in town trying to tie together to figure out where her mother has gone. This book hooked me from the first page and didn't let up.

This was one amazing psychological thriller. Wendy Walker is becoming one of my favourite, don't miss authors. This was a well-plotted psychological thriller that I raced through. Every time I thought I had things figured out, I changed my mind. When Molly Harper disappeared, the search didn't last very long. The police figured she had walked away from an unhappy life, and finding a note that implies just that doesn't help. Her youngest daughter is dead and it was her fault, her husband hardly talks to her and is often not home at all, her son doesn't want to be embarrassed by her and her other daughter and her are constantly arguing and fighting, what reason did she have to stay? The story opens with Molly driving home from her son's football game and running out of gas. There is a storm raging, so the gas station is closed. A man and his daughter offer her a ride to town and she accepts. She is not seen again and her car is found on the side of the road. Where is Molly?

The story is told from both Molly's and her daughter Nic's point of views. Nic does not give up on her mother and follows up on every lead possible. She knows her mother would not walk away from her family. I don't want to give away the plot of this story, but I will say that the girl in the truck has a lot to do with Molly's disappearance and what happens to her after that. This book is creepy, atmospheric, suspenseful and scary. Everyone is a suspect as you don't find out who the culprit is until the very end. If you enjoy suspenseful read and thrillers, then pick this one up, I am sure you will love it.

Author Wendy Walker (https://www.wendywalkerbooks.com) published the novel “Don't Look for Me” in 2020. Ms. Walker has published five novels.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of violence, mature language, and mature situations. The story is set in rural Connecticut. The primary characters are Molly Clarke and her twenty-one-year-old daughter Nichole.

Molly has been to see her son play football and is on her way home. She runs out of gas in the midst of a huge storm. The next day the police find her car abandoned on the side of the road outside the small town of Hastings. There is no sign of Molly. The police discover her credit card was used at a nearby hotel. They begin to think that Molly simply walked away from her life.

This fits with the Clarke family circumstances. Five years earlier to the day Molly had killed her youngest daughter in a traffic accident. Her family had begun to fall apart after that. Walking away from it all seemed to be a reasonable conclusion.

Nichole had fought with her mother just before she disappeared. Now she is desperate to find her. When a new lead comes up Nichole travels back to Hastings. She had been there while the police had been searching. It has been two weeks since her mother disappeared. She doesn't want to go home without her.

Nichole finds that the residents of Hastings have many secrets. Nichole can't tell who to trust. Someone she has met in Hastings knows what happened to her mother.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 6+ hours I spent reading this 345-page mystery. The story is a little unusual. The part told from Molly Clarke's perspective is in the first person. Ms. Walker has done a superb job of creating a compelling plot. Twists and a surprising ending all contribute to making this a very enjoyable read. The selected cover art is simple but feels like a good choice. I give this novel a 5 out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Heart-pounding thriller! Scary, twisted and surprisingly until the end.

Molly Clarke disappears and is presumed to have left home on the anniversary of a tragic event. But her grown daughter Nicole does not believe it and doesn’t stop looking for her. The chapters go back and forth between Molly and Nicole as you get the full story of what really happened.

This is my fourth book by Walker and they get better every time. This book had me shacking my head. I was so wrong on many levels. I love it when I can't figure out the ending.
5 star must read.

An abandoned car, a note in a hotel, and a daughter who just doesn't believe it. That is a brilliant trifecta of starting points for a great thriller. I was intrigued by the premise of a mother fighting to return home when (almost) everyone thinks she left on purpose. I'm glad to say Wendy Walker's novel gave me exactly what I hoped for. Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What do you do when your mom has disappeared, apparently on purpose? What if she has left a note and everyone, including your dad and brother, assume she abandoned you all? And what if you've been kidnapped but know no one is looking for you? It might be trite to bring up Tolstoy when discussing families, but each unhappy family truly does carry its own, specific trauma. How, to quote another genius, do you learn to live with the unimaginable? Wendy Walker truly looks into all the various family relationships in Don't Look for Me, gently investigating each for the small joys and cuts we give each other. It is this depth that gives the novel its emotional core and you can't help but root for the family, despite all their little barbs and neglects.

Don't Look For Me switches in perspective between Molly Clarke and her daughter, Nicole. While the former is looking for a way out and begins to get to know her captor, the latter struggles to make sense of the leads and the secretive locals. There are slight time hops here as well, as Molly's narrative tells us about her capture and works its way towards the moment Nicole finds herself in. Wendy Walker takes on a lot in Don't Look For Me, telling us about the Clarke family, Nicole's demons, and the history of the town and its locals. It's a credit to her writing that almost all of the characters do feel quite fleshed out, so that the reader can genuinely take them into account while trying to solve Molly's disappearance. I did struggle to initially get into the story, but once Walker has set up all the pieces it becomes riveting. As the tension slowly ramps up and the stories of the mother and daughter become more entwined, I found myself genuinely intrigued.

As mentioned above, Wendy Walker creates a whole range of characters for this novel, but it is Molly and Nicole who really shine. Both aren't in exactly ideal circumstances, dealing with guilt and hurt, trying to make the best of it and yet so undermining their own healing at times. However, as the novel continues, Walker shows us how they become stronger, more determined, smarter, more resourceful. It is done so gently, with baby steps, that by the end I was majorly impressed by both. Walker works well with the cliches of the thriller genre, creating memorable scenes and settings. At times spooky, at times heart-warming, I was thoroughly entertained throughout.

Don't Look for Me is a gentle but thorough look at a family in crisis and a daughter willing to do everything to find her mother. With tight scenes and interesting characters, I would recommend Wendy Walker's novel to any thriller reader!