I loved this book, as I have loved all of Lisa Gardner's books. This is an amazing novel especially if you like well written mysteries with a strong, independent female protagonists. All of the characters are fully developed and the breakneck pace had me reading late into the night. I finished it in one setting. This is promoted as a standalone but would make a wonderful series. Highly Recommended

This is the first stand-alone Lisa Gardner book I've read and I really enjoyed it.
While I'm not quite sold on the expertise-without-training of the protagonist, I just liked her so much that I was able to ignore those moments.
A quick read, the plot moved well and kept up the suspense.

This was a book I didn't want to put down. Every layer and twist adds to the story and really pulls you in. The characters acted exactly as you expected them too and you really felt a sense of the neighborhood and the general sense of distrust when a lone white woman starts asking too many questions. I felt satisfied when I finished this novel and am definitely looking forward to more Frankie in the future.

I have been meaning to read Lisa Gardner's books for years, and Before She Disappeared seemed like the perfect place to start!

Frankie is a recovering alcoholic who has devoted her life to searching for forgotten, missing persons. She arrives in Mattapan, a neighbourhood in Boston, to investigate the disappearance of Angelique Badeau. Angelique is a teenager from Haiti who lived with her Aunt and brother while attending high school. With help from Angelique's family, friends, and the case lead Detective Lotham, Frankie digs into the series of crimes that may be responsible for circumstances surrounding her disappearance.

I loved the set up of this novel and was intrigued from the beginning! Lisa Gardner is clearly a very experienced writer, and her characters are well-developed and moving. Frankie speaks often about her troubled past and struggles with addiction, which I found to be honest and heartfelt. Before She Disappeared is a police procedural about gang related, organized crime. Frankie and Lotham would hypothesize different theories, and then hunt for clues or evidence to prove them. I think that this style lead to the story lacking some suspense. It was still mysterious and twisty at times, but there was a quite a bit of plot rehashing. I think I would have loved it if it was a bit shorter!

Overall, this is a well-written crime novel with a strong backstory of Frankie's history with alcoholism and trauma. It is clearly well researched! I look forward to starting Lisa Gardner's D.D. Warren series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story about a lost person who finds lost people.

This book had good aspects- I love a solid detective story & the authors writing is solid.. But unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. I bristled at the hero complex threaded throughout, and the utilization of vulnerable populations as the beneficiaries of her work felt contrived, and uncomfortable at points.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Penguin Group Dutton for this eArc!

Thanks to Dutton Books for my free copy in exchange for my honest review!!

Wow this book was fun! This was my first Lisa Gardner and it will not be my last! I was immediately drawn into this thriller from the beginning and had to know what was going to happen with the characters and the whole case that Frankie Elkin was trying to solve! It has been awhile since I read a true thriller like this, and I loved all the twists along the way! I actually did not know what was going to happen, so it was fun being surprised in the end. I enjoyed that Frankie's character was full of grit and flaws and I wanted to root for her to find these girls throughout the story. Don't miss this one if you are looking for a thriller that will grip you until the end! I can't wait to see what comes out next from Lisa Gardner!

Frankie Elkin is has become fixated on finding the missing ever since she lost herself. Once again she finds herself in a new town, with a new missing girl. Despite Frankie’s flaws, it is easy to cheer her on. This book is a race to the finish to discover the fate of her latest case.

4.5/5! Thank you Dutton Books for my copy of BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED! This book is Lisa Gardner’s first standalone novel in 20 years. It’s about a recovering alcoholic named Frankie who searches for missing persons of cases that have gone cold or forgotten. I found this book to be fast-paced and suspenseful. I always love the idea of a civilian vigilante going after the bad guys. The characters in this book had a lot of layers and were complex. I loved how Gardner incorporated many details about these characters and the Boston area into the story to allow readers to build a better understanding of the people and places involved. If you haven’t read any of Gardner’s books (her D.D. Warren and Flora Dane series is so good!!) this would be a great place to start!

A compelling crime thriller, filled with suspense. Frankie, an alcoholic who is no stranger to loss and grief has focused her addictive behavior on investigating missing person cases whose disappearances have remained unsolved. In this case, a Haitian teen who doesn’t return from school to her home in Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood. Filled with flawed and fascinating multilayer characters, intriguing storylines, and gripping twists, this standout was a fast read that kept me riveted.

This book should have a warning label! Do not start reading unless you have a great deal of time because you will not want to put this book down! We meet Frankie Elkin right away, a recovering alcoholic who searches for missing people. She goes to Boston to look for a high school girl who never came home after school. Frankie had many flaws, but underneath it all, she just wants to do the right thing and help find the missing. Perhaps she is also “lost”. Lisa Gardner weaves in the neighborhood characters seamlessly. I love Viv, her work friend, and Charlie, her AA buddy. I don’t think the book is a series, but I would like to read more about Frankie.
I received a complimentary copy of the book from Penguin Group through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This is a slow-burn character driven mystery by Gardner. It’s a standalone novel that follows Frankie, a flawed alcoholic who travels the country to find missing persons.
I did find the mystery quite interesting and was trying to figure out what had happened to Angelique (the missing girl). I also liked the Haitian neighborhood setting in Boston.
I felt the book was too slow though with a lot of repetition of the details of the case.

Frankie Elkin is a recovering alcoholic who has made it her mission to find missing persons when everyone else either stops looking or when their cases go cold. Frankie is not a professional detective or a police officer but she has had success in finding the missing.

Lisa Gardner has a unique writing style in that I was instantly drawn in and invested in the main character of the story and as the novel progressed I also gained interest in the supporting characters as well.

The mystery/thriller aspect of the story didn’t keep my attention as much as me wanting to know more about Frankie. She is an interesting woman with her own demons to carry as she struggles to find her way through her own pain. The plot moved well enough throughout to keep me going but at times it felt a little slow. I was more invested in the personal stories of all the characters as opposed to when and if the missing girl was going to be found.

Frankie is not only flawed but relatable and I hope to see her in other novels by Lisa Gardner.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC of Before She Disappeared in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC copy of this in return for my honest review.

I have not read a lot of Lisa Gardner's work so I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read "Before She Disappeared." Frankie the lead in this book is perfect in her imperfection. Sometimes I feel like the strong female leads in books of this genre are written in a completely unrealistic, no faults, no fears kind of way that never rings true to me. I really like Frankie and enjoyed this book because of that.

The story was interesting and definitely took some unexpected twists that keep me engaged. I feel like Gardner kept this open that we may see more Frankie Elkin books in the future and I'm excited for that!

I thought this was a really interesting, engaging mystery! It had an exciting, explosive start, and surprises throughout the story that took me on quite a journey!

I really enjoyed that the MC, Frankie, was not a trained investigator or police officer. She was just a woman trying to atone for sins through the painful search for missing children. She’s an interesting character with her own demons that provide personality, and an attitude that helps her fit into any situation.

This was an exciting mystery, but I didn’t love all the parts of the plot. There were some times where things slowed down a bit too much, and I didn’t love some of the gang interaction. Overall though, this was a good book that I didn’t want to put down! It’s perfect for readers that enjoy a crime mystery.

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

This was the first Lisa Gardner book I've read - but it won't be the last! It's not so much the plot - because the search for the missing teenager and folks wanting to keep it buried - has been done. It's the way Lisa writes, the way she designs her plots, the conversations, the way she gives bits and pieces to the reader... This one drew me in and I found myself reading it at every little chance I got.

This was my first Lisa Gardner book and I had really high hopes. While there were elements of the story I really liked, it ultimately didn’t grab me like I had hoped it would. I loved Frankie’s character and even though she wasn’t technically a cop she was a damn good detective. She was able to see things in investigating Angelique’s appearance that others couldn’t. Emmanuel was also one of my favorite characters. The love he has for his sister is unparalleled. While the second half of the story got more interesting and engaging, I found the first half to be a little flat. It wasn’t a book I kept returning to and took me a while to get through.

I've read most of Lisa Gardner's books, and enjoyed both series and stand alones. Before She Disappeared didn't really live up to my expectations.
Frankie Elkin is a recovering alcoholic who travels all over the country trying to solve cold disappearance cases. In Boston she's searching for not one but two teenage girls, who has been missing for almost a year.
Frankie is such a loner, that she's almost a caricature, and yet she befriends people in the tough neighborhood, the missing girl's family and the investigating police officer in no time. I guess it just didn't ring true to me.

However it was still a page turner, and I will also read Lisa Gardner's next book.

I could not put this book down. The characters were fantastic and the story was super interesting. There were a few times when Frankie and Lotham or another character would discuss the case and speculate what had happened/was happening and it would get slightly long winded, but other than that I thought this was a really great read. Thank you Dutton and Netgalley for my free copy.

This story is almost like a female Lee Child’s Reacher in that female main character is a nomad. Like Reacher she tries to find answers for people, unlike Reacher she deliberately travels with purpose seeking to help families & loved ones find answers to what happened to their missing person. She is a woman on a mission of redemption for her own demons. Until she forgives herself she will never be at peace or seek a more stable existence. Despite this book being written in 1st person, it was a very engrossing mystery.

This book sucked me in from the beginning, and I couldn't put it down. Lisa Gardner is one of my favorite authors, and once again she did not disappoint.

Frankie, a recovering alcoholic, goes from city to city finding missing people; usually people that the police don't make a priority to find. This time the person she's searching for is Angelique Badeau. A teenager with a bright future who went missing from her high school months earlier. Nothing and no one will stop her from finding her.

I loved this book. I really liked the characters, and the storyline. Normally I can figure out the 'who-done-it' before the end of the book, but this one I couldn't, so this made it an even better read.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book in return for my honest opinion.