Frankie Elkin is an alcoholic who moves across the country searching for missing people, chiefly from minority groups. She’s a restless soul, driven to help those perhaps to save herself from her inner demons. She makes her way to Mattapan an overcrowded and run down area of Boston, where she helps the Haitian family of Angelique Badeau, an excellent student, who disappeared eleven months ago. What unfolds is an intriguing case that places Frankie in danger.

The book starts really well and the character of Frankie really intrigues me. She’s resourceful, tough but also vulnerable with battling her addiction to alcohol. In my opinion, one of the biggest strengths of the novel is the characterisation and especially likeable are Stoney and Viv at the bar where Frankie works and lives to keep body and soul together. Detective Dan Lothan is another good character and the undercurrent between him and Frankie adds another dimension. There’s some smart dialogue, it’s a well written story and the setting in Mattapan is good as it’s a scary place to be especially at night. The case is interesting and the plot gets deeper and deeper with some good twists along the way particularly in the clues that smart cookie Angélique provides for her equally smart brother Emmanuel. . I have no trouble believing the storyline or outcome.

However, for the first half the read is compelling but the pace stays the same pretty much throughout. It’s a jog and I begin to want a sprint, more speed and an injection of more excitement although the end is good. I can honestly say I like the book but I don’t love it, it’s a solidly enjoyable read rather than a completely memorable one. I like Lisa Gardner and I will always want to read what she writes and I’d like Frankie to reappear in another novel because I think she’s fascinating.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the arc for an honest review.

I have to say Lisa Gardner is one of my favourite authors and I was thrilled to be granted early access to this new stand alone. This was a fantastic read and I hope the main protagonist Frankie Elkins will get another outing in the future.
Frankie is a recovering alcoholic with no family or friends. She travels across America looking for missing people. She’s not a trained investigator and she’s not welcomed by law enforcement but it’s how she tries to stay sober.
This time she’s looking for Angelique Badeau a teenager missing from a rough area of Boston. She gets a job and too in the local bar and starts asking questions.
It’s a great story and I was hooked. It also amazes me that there are real people like Frankie in the world who try to help with missing people cases.
Thanks to Random house and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#BeforeSheDisappeared #NetGalley

I really enjoyed the new standalone thriller by Lisa Gardner featuring a great character Frankie Elkin. Frankie is a recovering alcoholic who has seen more of her share of problems through her life. Now for reasons she cannot explain spends all her time and money searching for missing people the police have stopped looking for.

Her latest case is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Angelique is from a Boston area with a rough reputation and she expects to have problems getting help from both the police and an untrusting family and friends. Frankie is used to hitting brick walls and will continue to try and find the truth far after everyone else has given up.

I know this is the first stand alone the author has written for many years but with such a strong character as Frankie Elkin it could easily turn into a new series.

Exciting, action packed read.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Random House, Cornerstone for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A decent, pacey thriller. The author is adept at creating atmosphere. A neat concept too. It took me a while to get into this but before too long I raced through.

As a big fan of Lisa Gardner's work I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed with this book. The story itself was ok but it lacked the excitement and tension that ensures that you will sit up all night to get to the end. In fact it took me four goes to finish it. I liked the main character and would be happy to learn more about her but with a few more plot twists next time please Lisa.

Oh this was so very, very good well no it was more than that it was amazing and completely compulsive I just loved it. What made this book stand out for me was that the story was something completely original and the main character of of Frankie Elkin was a total joy she is so flawed and yet so loveable, although I’m sure she would hate to be called loveable!!
The writing by Lisa Gardner was exceptional and she made a read where you really cared about the wonderful cast of characters and although I raced through the book I was so sad to finish it and I shall miss Frankie and others but maybe one day we may hear from her again I would love that.
A complex plot of a missing girl who Frankie makes it her business to try and find whilst stepping on a lot of toes in the process but what I loved was the rapport between these characters not forgetting the maniacal cat Piper it was such a perfect kind of read for me in every way and so much more than just a mystery thriller I just can’t praise it enough. Many many thanks to Lisa Gardner you excelled yourself with this one.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone, Century for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I got into this book so hard. I have been picking it up every spare minute for a couple of days and have devoured it.

I loved Frankie. She was both hard to like and yet so utterly likeable that she fascinated me. I thought her story was so well entrenched in her actions and thinking and yet the who, what and where wasn't revealed until very late on in the book. It kept me hooked on her character and motivations. I am hoping this is just one of many books concerning Frankie almost as much as I am hoping this is it so she remains an enigma to me.

The plot itself seemed fairly simple and straightforward but twisted into something darker more complex as it progressed. I have to admit I wasn't at all expecting the eventual path that the plot took and found it refreshing.

There were some definite twists and turns throughout, some really did surprise me, and I largely enjoyed it, but at some points I felt a bit...flat. I'm not sure if that's the right word.

There were alot of points where the characters sit about and chin wag about events or postulate and at those points I always felt a little sigh of, oh talking again. It wasn't the majority and it certainly never put me off or made me so bored I gave up. Possibly because it was combined with a lot of interviews as well, it felt like there was a lot of dialogue generally.


I really enjoyed the book, and I'm hoping we will see more Frankie in the future.

Oh, my! This author can write! After a few 'OK' / 'Good Reads' some of which were rather like attending a recital by a loved one who has just grasped an instrument. This was such a treat and more akin to being given front row seats to a virtuoso performance by a favourite artist. I loved it!

It's so original. The lead character, Frankie, is a recovering alcoholic, who is also focused on finding missing persons and the storyline takes us on her latest quest.

It's a fabulous read with amazing, interesting, complex characters and I was absolutely hooked, from start to finish. I have adored this author over many years and this standalone, true, psychological thrillers is up there with her best. Please.....more of Frankie.....

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview this fabulous page turner.

Lisa Gardner was inspired by the wide range of people who commit themselves to helping find the missing in our world for no reward for this crime thriller. Here, our hunter of the missing is haunted, alcoholic bartender Frankie Elkin, raised in Northern California, a white, middle aged woman, driven and determined, owning only what she can carry, staying only for as long as it takes to succeed in her mission and moving on to the next missing person. She is not a private investigator, she takes no payment, she is an ordinary woman taking on an extraordinary task, coming in when the police have failed and the public have forgotten the missing. She has never failed, so far she has located 14 people, the only problem is that they were dead when she discovers them, just like her latest, Lani Whitehorse, just for once she would like to find someone alive.

She travels to Boston for her next case, 15 year old schoolgirl Angelique 'Angel' Badeau, missing for 11 months, living with her Aunt Guerline and younger brother, Emmanuel. A clever girl, she has dreams of becoming a doctor, coming from Haiti after the earthquake disaster. Angel is no dreamer, but a planner, intent on staying in the US with her beloved aunt and brother, loyal and protective towards those she loves. She left her school one day and disappeared, her bag and phone found in bushes later, since then she has not been seen, leaving her family devastated and desperate. Frankie becomes bartender at Stoney's, living in a tiny flat above it, sharing her accommodation with a deranged and aggressive cat, Piper. Initially made to feel unwelcome by Angel's family and Detective Dan Lotham, Frankie begins to make headway in a case that had looked dead, but will she find Angel alive?

Once again Lisa Gardner delivers as one of my favourite crime thriller authors, she creates a complex and magnetic character in Frankie, a woman wanting to atone, having to live with grief, tragedy and the ever present threat of succumbing to the demon drink, needing to attend AA meetings in whatever town she finds herself in Whilst Frankie wants to connect with Lotham, at no point does she have romantic delusions, she knows herself better than that, as soon as she is finished, she will be off to look for the next missing person. The conclusion of the novel suggests there might be a possibility of Gardner returning to Frankie in the future, which I really hope she does. This is a entertaining and engaging thriller with a great central protagonist that I think many of Gardner's fans and other crime and thriller readers will love. Many thanks to Random House Cornerstone for an ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Frankie is a recovering alcoholic that travels around solving missing persons cases while tending bar in order to stay afloat. She learns of an 15 year old Haitian girl who went missing in Boston nearly a year ago and decides to investigate.

Lisa Gardner is in my top 5 authors. All of her books are really good. I thought this one was great. I was really engaged in it from the start and my interest never wavered. I like an investigation without a lot of lulls, where new clues are turning up all the time and that is how this book was. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope we see more of Frankie in the future.

Frankie is a fantastic character,an addict with a past ,who spends her life moving from place to place trying to find missing people.
You cant help but be on her side.
She also seems to have a gift,people open up to her,they talk. So a small comment can lead to a clue ,that over time spirals into a whole big plot.
Theres some comedy in here too,and some excellent supporting characters.
Very enjoyable read, I hope in the future we see more of Frankie.

Lisa Gardner always writes a cracking story and Before She Disappeared is once again an amazing read!

Frankie is a wonderful character, full of grit and personality, and I love her inner monologues so much! I really hope we will get to see more of her in the future!

I do not want to spoil anything, because you just have to read this for yourself!

#BeforeSheDisappeared #NetGalley
A good read.
Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman with more regrets than belongings who 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.
Go for it if you're a fan of her.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK Cornerstone for giving me an advanced copy.