A small Boston suburb is rocked when Juanita Baez, her two young children, and her boyfriend are all found brutally murdered.
Tragically, thirteen-year-old Lola and nine-year-old Manny were both shot dead, while Juanita’s oldest daughter, sixteen-year-old Roxy, is nowhere to be found. As headlines about the murdered family pile up, veteran Detective D.D. Warren begins tearing apart the crime scene looking for answers. But what she finds is a concerning lack of physical evidence.
While Warren is working her case, Flora Dane, who was introduced in Gardner’s 2017 bestseller Find Her, is heading up a support group for women who’ve survived traumatic situations. She first shows up to help a young college student who witnessed her three roommates get slashed and hacked to death by a knife-wielding madman who tricked the girls into inviting him back to their place after meeting them in a bar.
Flora, a fan-favorite character, is used well in her return. Gardner continues to do a fine job developing her, and her no-nonsense, direct approach to teaching empowerment and healing lends itself nicely to the story. She enters the main plotline when she realizes that Roxy Baez had previously approached one of her support groups prior to someone murdering her family. Ultimately, Warren’s main objective is to locate Roxy, who she fears was kidnapped, and Flora — though she uses different means and resources — agrees to help in any way that she can.
As Gardner’s story unfolds, some startling truths emerge from Juanita Baez’s past. Like, for instance, the fact that the mother of three once lost her children to the state. The kids were put into foster care, where they were abused before eventually being returned to their mother. As the search for Roxy continues, Warren begins to wonder if she has the case all wrong and forces herself to consider the sick possibility that Roxy Baez might not be a victim who watched her loved ones die before being abducted. . . but that she might actually be the killer, and went on the run after murdering her family.
Lisa Gardner’s Look For Me is a fast-paced, compelling crime thriller that twists and turns its way to a nail-biting ending. The opening chapter is intense, shocking, and heartbreaking. . . and certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. D.D. Warren might be the series protagonist, but Gardner has another star on her hands in Flora Dane, who steals the spotlight and makes this already gripping story even better.
Book Details
Author: Lisa Gardner
Series: D.D. Warren #9
Pages: 400 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 1524742058
Publisher: Dutton
Release Date: February 6, 2018
Book Spy Rating: 7.0/10
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Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.