As a longtime fan of Gardner’s, I was thrilled to get this advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Frankie is a nomad, who lives on the run, following cold cases/missing persons. An addict, who now gets her high by following up on these mysteries and solving them with her Tracphone, printed maps and her wits.

This case lands her in the all Haitian neighborhood in Boston, where she takes a job bartending and getting the lay of the land while she starts investigating the nearly year old disappearance of a 15 year old girl.

I really enjoyed this novel. There were a lot of plot twists that kept me on my toes, and I enjoyed Frankie’s character. We understood her and her reasoning for the life on the move, but I wish we would have gotten a bit more of her backstory. Overall, 4.5 stars, as I did not see the ending coming at all!

I am always in the mood for good suspense, and Lisa Gardner always knows how to spin a thrilling tale! Her newest novel is Before She Disappeared and it’s a must-read. If you have read her books before, you know that Lisa is an absolute genius, writing engaging stories that suck you in.

Frankie is a woman in the middle of her life, a loner with no friends or family. She spends her time looking for missing people, as a way of redeeming her own past perhaps. Her latest case takes her to a rough area of Boston where she is looking for a teen who has gone missing. But someone is throwing up roadblock and doesn’t want Frankie’s questions to be answered. Is Frankie herself in danger?

SO GOOD.

Take a look:

Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will–searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.

A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim’s wary family tells Frankie she’s on her own–and she soon learns she’s asking questions someone doesn’t want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

This will be published on January 19, 2021! Get it here.

Many of us felt that back in 2017, the new Wonder Woman movie presented a strong female character that moved the needle forward for feminism. I get it. So let me tell you ‘bout Frankie Elikin in this book: she’s a tough, gritty woman who doesn’t just move the needle forward, she blows up the whole damn record player.

Frankie’s the type of character that does for women what “A Doll’s House” did back in the late 1800s, when Ibsen wrote it. It SHOCKS us with a completely new view of how a woman can live her life. Or as another example, just going back to 2017 (the same year the new Wonder Woman movie came out), Frances McDormand played a fantastic character in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which showed that beauty comes in the form of strength, not what society defines as “hotness.” That a woman can be flawed and entirely imperfect and not what the patriarchy might define as ‘nice,’ yet still be a heroine because of her sheer determination to make sure that justice prevails.

That’s who Frankie is in this book. She’s an ordinary, middle-aged woman with her own demons who feels compelled to track down those who have disappeared but do NOT get media attention because they are marginalized and underprivileged.

As you know, if you’ve read Gardner before, her work is fast-paced, heart-pounding and fun, in this book, as always. I’m just choosing to focus on the character of Frankie because for me, she is the stand-out element of this book.

Book jacket blurb:
Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will--searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.

A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim's wary family tells Frankie she's on her own--and she soon learns she's asking questions someone doesn't want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

YES, you should get this if you like thrillers with strong female characters and/or gritty crime dramas. It hits the shelves Jan. 19, 2021!

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC!

This review will be posted on my blog and social media closer to the publication date.

A woman who helps search for the missing moves to a new town to investigate a new case. Frankie, a recovering alcoholic, moves to a Boston neighborhood, Mattapan, to look for a missing teenager - Angelique, who moved to America from Haiti, and vanished months ago, leaving everything behind. Did she leave because of something to do with immigration or did something more sinister happen? As Frankie begins to dig in where people don't want to look, she starts finding answers people don't want her to find, and she could be in danger next. This is a cool little mystery with a new heroine that seeks to find the helpless and make a difference.

I am a huge fan of Lisa Gardner, and I am grateful to NetGalley for providing me with the ARC. While I really enjoyed this novel, and found it to be a solid read, it is not one of my favorite Lisa novels of all time. One reason for this might be that I was a little sad that this one is not set in the DD Warren universe and seems to be a stand-alone character, but it also is not as much of a twisted thriller as Gardner’s pervious works. I guess time will tell if this novel remains separate from the DD Warren universe or it this will be a new series that at some point might bring the main character into DD’s realm.

The main character in Before She Disappeared, is a missing person private investigator by the name of Frankie. She specializes in cold cases that have either been given up on or overlooked. Frankie is an interesting character. She is a very driven person who does not let anything stand in her way when it comes to solving her cold cases, and she is also a woman with a past that is mysterious and checkered. We learn more about the missing girl Frankie is working to bring home than we do about what drove Frankie to AA and now drives her to solve this cold cases. I am hopeful that if this series continues we will learn more about Frankie’s past and the trauma that so clearly shapes her life.

Even though the plot of this novel was not as darkly twisted as pervious titles, it still was an interesting read that kept me guessing as I tried to figure out how everything Frankie uncovers fits together. Gardner does a good job of keeping all of these balls in the air as she drove the plot forward, and ultimately tied all of the multiple threads together for a satisfying conclusion.

My one concern about the novel is that it deals with a white character trying to solve the murders of primarily people of color, the case that most prominently is focused on in this novel is that of Angelique- a Haitian teenager living in a predominately Haitian neighborhood. And while Frankie does address “white savior” issues in the book, I do wonder how people of color will feel about this character and the setting of this novel, which is something that I, as a person not of color, cannot speak to with any authority or insight.

I have read almost all of Lisa Gardner's books and this one was my favorite of them all. I absolutely loved how the story captivated me from the first pages. I loved the Boston setting and I loved Frankie. I hope that this might become a series and we see Frankie again looking for missing persons. Amazing book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

We meet Frankie Elkin, a not-so-young anymore woman with an addiction and a secret. As the story gets going, we will learn more about these two bits of darkness. Both are a big part of her, and both play a role in her current life.
Frenkie finds people. She is not a private detective, she has no experience in law enforcement, and she works for free. But she can find people that only the family cares about: the young, the strays, the vulnerable, and the unimportant.
Now, Frenkie finds herself in Boston, looking for Angelique Badeau, a 15-year old schoolgirl who disappeared almost a year ago. Living in a bad section of Boston, aren’t particularly interested in this latest disappearance. But Frenkie is. She takes a job as a waitress at Stoney’s, and lives above the establishment, sharing a space with Piper, a house cat with an attitude.
Frenkie has a way with people. She’s good at asking the right questions—and not necessarily the same questions the police asked. Haunted by her past, but determined to find Angelique, Frenkie meets more and more people. Some are friendly, some are just fellow travellers on the complicated public transport system. Some aren’t. Others even shoot to kill.
Frenkie is a heart-warming character, and one whose secrets become familiar to us as the story progresses. She asks the right questions. And she cares.
Before She Disappeared also asks the right questions. What if the missing girl would have been a rich girl from privilege, instead of a girl of Haitian descent raised in a poor neighbourhood? What if she wasn’t a very smart girl, determined to get a good education?
The story picks up the pace when it gets going, and is hard to put down. The characters are very well defined, and both the setting and the general atmosphere are entrancing. What a read!
In the end, everything comes together nicely with some unexpected twists. A very recommendable read again, for people who like stories with a solid background, excitement, and (let’s not forget) cats.

An amazing thriller that I just couldn’t get enough of. Really interesting characters that ring true this kept me going to the last page.

Full review online in late January.

Frankie Elkins investigates missing persons cases, cold cases of those whose disappearances have long remained unsolved. Frankie has no investigative experience, and isn't pretending to be a cop or a private detective. She is a civilian, leaning into the perks of having no red tape to contend with; while somehow managing to ask the right questions, poke the right bears, and use her single-minded focus as an limitless resource to do what the police can't...find answers. And though she is without training, and heeds no rules, she uses her wit and her recovering addiction background as a tool to talk to people and uncover clues.

The plotline and the mystery of the story is rather unique. I'm not sure I've read one like it. It twists and turns, the pieces never seem to quite fit, much less seem to actually belong to the same puzzle, and yet it did all inevitably make sense. Recommended read. Although listed as a standalone novel, it's possibly the beginning of a new series by Lisa Gardener

After the last book I read, I knew I needed something that I would enjoy immensely. A few pages in and I was so right about choosing to read Before She Disappeared. I love Lisa Gardner (one of her books is the only one I've ever stayed up late to finish, and I read a lot of books). This is her first stand alone in 20 years, and she delivered. I would not have guessed the ending, and I was appreciative of the fact that she explained how the character reached that conclusion in a fashion that was easy to understand; other books sometimes aren't able to do that well. I would definitely recommend this book.

I’m shaken, slowly crying, barely gathering right words to tell how I wholeheartedly loved this book and how deeply affected me with its resonating, realistic, deeply layered character portraits! That’s why Ms. Gardner is one of the most brilliantly talented authors who creates broken but willful, fighter characters with tragic pasts.

We’re introduced to brand new character Frankie Elkin: a recovering alcoholic, a loner, survivor of tragic past, having no proper place to call her home, no people to call friends, family, acquaintances, carrying her limited belongings including a phone, a few clothes, a whistle at her backpack.

Her mission is finding missing people who are given up by police and who are no longer remembered by public or never cared by media.

She keeps looking for them as her redemption of tragic event she’d faced ten years ago. She keeps searching them to keep her sanity intact, controlling to urge to start drinking. She wants to save lives because of the guilt feeling has been eating her alive and slowly killing her for years! But when it gets dark and when she is alone by herself, her nightmares start chasing her again! At those darker times she calls her survivor which saved her from herself 10 years ago. That’s how she spends her days and nights: finding girls, running away from her inner demons.

She found all the missing 14 people she’d be looking for but none of them were found alive!

She’s definitely old school; she never carries smartphones, trying to find her way out in big cities’ complex transportation system by using her maps. But she’s good listener and she really knows how to ask right questions which may be her secret weapon to make the people talk and get the right clues out of their mouths to be on the right track of her cases.

Now her last case dragged her to Mattapan, Boston: a very rough and dangerous neighborhood with its mostly Haitian population. Some of them moved to the states after losing their homes at the big earthquake for security reasons.

Frankie came here to find 15 years old Haitian girl Angelique Badeau who goes missing after school 11 months ago and nobody hears from her. She connects with her aunt and her little tech genius brother Emmanuel to offer her free investigation service, getting a job at local bar and a room sharing with one of the wildest cats reminds you of baby panther.

Of course locals get suspicious about a skinny white woman prying around their neighborhood and they want to know her real agenda ( 15 minutes fame, bribery money, insanity etc.) but she slowly finds her way to make them trust her and give the crucial information she needs.

She also gains trust of Detective Lotham who conducts the investigation ! Their sizzling chemistry between them may put the entire neighborhood on fire!

They find out Angelique’s disappearance may be connected with another case: another smart student, 15 years old Livia who is sister of drug dealer. As they dig deeper, they start to realize the case they’re working on so much complex, dangerous than simple case of two girls’ disappearances!

Overall:
Well balanced paced, action packed, smart, hooking up, addictive writing style, mind blowing characterization made me fall in love with this book over and over again so my final words about this excellent reading experience are: please take my five gazillion stars and give me at least 10 more Frankie Elkin books!

Millions of thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN Dutton for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts!

I cannot wait to read the next adventure of Frankie Elkin!!!

Oh how I love anything written by Lisa Gardner. Thank you so much Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book, I was SO excited. At first I was a touch disappointed that it was a stand alone and not one about her other characters I have grown to love, but that passed quickly. Frankie has just as much spunk and bad ass attitude as all the other females Gardner writes about! She is a broken woman who spends her days trying to solve missing person cases...rather than focusing on her own personal painful memories. And she is pretty darn good at it. She drives local police crazy by managing to find answers from witnesses that they could never find themselves, and brings to light new evidence they missed.
This book wasn't as twisty and dark as some of Ms.Gardner's other books but it had just enough suspense, witty banter and interesting characters to make for a great read. I hope we get to read more about Frankie in future books, because I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

An amazing book! A new character for Ms Gardner, Frankie goes from town to town looking for missing person cases where the police are at a dead end. Frankie is written as a strong, likable character who considers herself broken. There are many twists and turns in this story, and it’s hard to put the book down. It’s definitely a page-turner!! I’m hoping this is a beginning of a series. Anyone who likes a good mystery will like this book. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.

Incase you're wondering how this fits into Gardner's DD Universe, or various connected series, surprise! It doesn't. BEFORE SHE DIED is a standalone from this prolific author and stands apart (at least for now?) and in a sense our protagonist, Frankie Elkin, feels like a combination of all Gardner's other leading ladies.

What Frankie does is investigate missing persons cases, specifically people of colour, whose disappearances have remained unsolved, long gone cold. This definitely gave me a bit of a Flora vibe, minus the vigilante thing, because Frankie has no investigative experience, isn't pretending to be a cop or a private detective. She is a full on civilian, leaning into the perks of having no red tape to contend with, while somehow managing to ask the right questions, poke the right bears, and use her single-minded focus as an limitless resource to do what the police can't : find answers. And though she is without training, and heeds no rules, she gave me serious DD vibes with her wit, and her addiction, as a recovering addict, made me think of Rainie. See? Little bit of everyone.

Did I like her though? I don't know. Sometimes. She definitely has a bit of mystery of her own, some backstory that haunts her, and haunts us too with teasing little moments that make us wonder what happened, what would possess a middle aged woman to be transient, traveling from city to city, state to state, working odd jobs to make a living wage for the length of time she needs to search out the missing person, only to pick up and leave. I love the idea of this. I love how Gardner leaned into the loneliness of it, the fixation, a different form of addiction -- one she doesn't resist, one she feeds, even as she fights the call of a drink -- and yet I never truly.. felt her, understood her. Maybe that's realistic, though. Maybe we're not supposed to. No one else seems to.

The mystery of this story? So unique. I'm not sure I've read one like it. It twists and turns, the pieces never seem to quite fit, much less seem to actually belong to the same puzzle, and yet it did all inevitably make sense.

What I liked almost as much as the concept? The setting and, as it went hand in hand, the supporting cast. This takes place in a very multicultural area in Boston and the mix of neighbours, the various people Frankie befriends, orbits around, they all felt rich, solid, like people I would want to know. It makes me sad that even if we get another story featuring Frankie, it won't be with these other characters. Or, rather, unlikely to be. Because that defeats the concept of her existence, of her mission.

Overall this was really solid, though I definitely found the first half more compelling, and while it probably won't make the cut if I ever did a Top Ten Gardner Books list? I still had a good time with it.

3.5 stars

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This is a new character and a different story line Frankie is a recovering alcoholic and is a very tortured character. She travels across the US looking to help solve missing cases. There is so much emotion in this book

I am a long time fan of Lisa Gardner, and fell in love with her new character, Frankie. A bit of a tortured and lost soul, Frankie tries her best every day. She believable, sympathetic and tremendously interesting. So hope we see more of her.

I enjoyed this a lot, I read the first half super quick and then it took me a bit to finish the second half but I still really liked it and would definitely recommend!

Wow.....I found myself stopping everything I was doing to read this, but the last hour I kept procrastinating because I didn’t want it to end. Frankie is a tortured soul who finds missing people. For no money, clout, reward, etc. she is fighting her own demons, and maybe trying to find forgiveness. Very bittersweet ending, but I hope we see more of Frankie!

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner. Well written, intriguing and fast paced with an unconventional set of characters and different a perspective. A definite must read. Will Frankie's be finding more lost people? One can have hope. Piper was a bonus character for me. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I am always excited to see a new Lisa Gardner book out and was even more curious since this is a brand new character, named Frankie, a people finder so to speak, a tortured soul trying to save missing people, or is she really trying to save herself? I couldn’t put this book down, with an interesting cast of characters and multiple plot twists, this book will keep you hooked till the bitter end and you’ll come out wanting more.