Elsa is an FBI agent who searches for missing children and she is called in to look for Ruby, a 17 year old who has disappeared on her way home from work. Elsa's life is complicated as her father is dying in hospital and she has to help look after her teenage niece.
Teamed up with Lex, a NYPD detective the pair start to search for Ruby and in the course of their investigation Elsa has to confront a difficult situation from her past which the current search and her father's condition serve to emphasize. Elsa cannot escape her previous life as a lot of what she does for her job is tied up with her own childhood.
As well as being an interesting case study of how one's past has a profound effect on one's present this is also a very exciting kidnap story which was so compelling that I raced through it in 24 hours.
I liked the way Elsa gradually learns to trust her new partner, Lex and also how the author portrays her as a damaged personality who finds it very difficult to let people into her life and really get to know her for fear of revealing too much of herself.
There are many twists and turns in this book but it was the revelation in the final pages that had me gasping.
This is a great read and perfect for fans of dark and exciting thrillers, ideal for readers of Tess Gerritsen and Karin Slaughter with a strong female lead character. I get the feeling that this could be the first in a series and I certainly will look out for the next one.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

A map of the dark by karen ellis.
FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people.
She knows how it feels to be lost...
Though her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, Elsa cannot refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has gone missing from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads hides the fact that she did not go willingly.
A very good read although I found it slow. 4*. Netgalley and hodder and stoughton.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of A Map of the Dark, the first in a series to feature Special Agent Elsa Myers of the FBI's New York Child Abduction Rapid Deployment unit.

Elsa is sitting with her dying father when she gets a call to assist detective Lex Cole of NYPD in investigating the disappearance of teenager Ruby Haverstock who never made it home from her part time job in a coffee shop.The investigation is intense and takes Ruby to places she has no wish to visit.

I enjoyed A Map of the Dark which has several interesting twists and turns. It is not, however, a straightforward missing person novel as it spends more time excavating Elsa's past and character than looking for Ruby. It has therefore several points of view and timelines. Mostly it is Elsa's narrative both present and past but there are interjections from the missing teenager. It gets confusing occasionally as it jumps from one to the other.

I can't say that majorly damaged investigators are my favourite reading matter and I feel that Elsa's problems are fairly stereotypical so the big twist at the end is fairly well signposted and not much of a surprise. Of course I read a lot so I may be unfair in this assessment. It would be interesting to read about Elsa without all the baggage as she is a smart and dedicated, if emotionally involved, investigator.

With the focus on Elsa and her problems the investigation is rather perfunctory - everything falls into place rather easily and in double quick time so there is little of the despondency and frustration detectives normally experience.

A Map of the Dark is a solid read.