Before She Disappeared: A Novel

Written by Lisa Gardner

Narrated by Hillary Huber

2022 Audie Award Finalist for Best Female Narrator

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a propulsive thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgotten

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781721387557

Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty novels, including Look for Me, Right Behind You, Find Her, Crash & Burn, Fear Nothing, Touch & Go, Catch Me, and The Neighbor, which won the International Thriller of the Year Award. She lives with her family in New England.

Reviews for Before She Disappeared

[Monica Cedeno · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think the single narrator narration gives feels that are more detective noir than her other works. Which is sometimes a thing I like. I like Frankie. Ima read the next one rn, so i guess I liked it enough. :)

[NNEAMAKA PAYNE · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lisa Gardner was inspired by the wide range of people who commit themselves to help 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 has 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 a 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 Latham, 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 favorite 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 Latham, 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 an 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.

[Paul · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The audiobook was superb. Lisa Gardner's characters are written in excellent three dimensional prose, and they come to life beautifully with the voice of narrator, Hillary Huber, who won an Audie Award for her performance here. Aside from having great characters (I really like her new amateur detective, Frankie Elkin) and a clever plot, it also shines a light on the plight of vulnerable Haitian refugees living in the crime-ridden inner city (Boston) , and in so doing humanizes them. All in all, a really good listen. Now I'm off to find the sequel and see where Frankie Elkin goes next.

[Julie Burns · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed both the narration and the story. I will look for more books by this author.

[jepeters333 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jhscolloquium · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bestselling author Lisa Gardner has penned the first volume in another series at the heart of which is a strong female protagonist. But Frankie Elkin, unlike Detective D.D. Warren, is not a trained professional. Rather, she's an ordinary woman with a troubled past . . . and a mission.The fictional D.D. Warren is a Detective with the Boston Police Department, a city in which Gardner formerly resided. Frankie once "had a house, a car, a white picket fence . . . " Gardner does not explain what happened, but Frankie has no home now. Rather, she goes wherever the cases lead her and volunteers her time. She has no interest in payment or recognition, and has so far solved fourteen cases without finding a single missing person still alive. Most recently, she located the body of a twenty-two-year old woman locked in a her vehicle at the bottom of a lake. She had been missing for eighteen months. Usually, Frankie finds her next case online, frequenting chat rooms and forums where family members and friends join "crazy people like" her to discuss the investigations conducted by local authorities, and share theories and information. Frankie doesn't own a computer. Instead, she visited the library in the town where her last case concluded. That has led her to Boston, a city she has never previously visited, in search of Angelique Lovelie Badeau, who was fifteen years old when she disappeared eleven months ago. She walked out of school on Friday afternoon, but never arrived at home. "No sightings. No leads. No breaks in the case." Her friends call her Angel, but she is LiLi to her family.Mattapan is a Boston neighborhood with the largest Haitian population in the United States, aside from Florida. It is also a rough area populated by poor working people, replete with gang activity and violent crime. That doesn't deter Frankie who arrives determined to find a job and apartment, and commence working the case. She is particularly interested in cases involving minorities.Frankie is an alcoholic who needs to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly in order to safeguard the sobriety she has maintained for more than nine years. She explains, in the first-person narrative Gardner employs, that she "gave up drinking and took up always being on the move instead." She grew up in a small Northern California town. Her father also drank and her mother worked two jobs in order to support the family. And a man named Paul saved her until she grew strong enough to save herself. She thinks about Paul frequently, but Gardner does not reveal the nature of their relationship or precisely what happened to him. Gardner describes Frankie as "haunted," and "living outside the norms of society — and yet in doing so, finding herself. She is not who the world expects her to be, but she is exactly who she needs to be." She is an endlessly fascinating character, in part because Gardner only offers periodic clues to what motivates her to lead the life she does.The mystery at the core of this first volume is intricately crafted and populated by intriguing supporting characters. Gardner's story implicates societal issues including immigration, racism, and human trafficking, and is propelled forward at an unrelenting pace as she adds layers of complications, motives, and characters with reasons to keep Frankie from locating the missing girl. Frankie narrowly escapes danger more than once, as she seeks to understand how exactly LiLi went missing, given all of the ways that people's whereabouts are tracked in urban areas. A fifteen-year-old leaves clues through social media, a cellular telephone, friends, and camera feeds located throughout the neighborhood, yet LiLi vanished.Frankie indeed takes a job in a bar that includes a small, furnished upstairs apartment. An aggressive cat named Piper is included in the deal. Stoney, the owner, is "a man who's seen it all and lived to tell the tale" and can "communicate volumes with a single eyebrow," and he seems to appreciate Frankie and her demons. Frankie's efforts are at first met with skepticism by LiLi's family and, initially, derision by Dan Lotham, the lead detective on the case. But Frankie works to ear the trust of LiLi's family and Lotham recognizes that Frankie gets results -- she has a knack for getting information from people who refuse to cooperate with the authorities -- and if the two of them work together, they might make progress. Because Frankie has no special skills or training, is not a licensed private investigator or affiliated with the local police department, she is not bound by procedures designed to ensure that the rights of subjects or witnesses are not trampled. She can and will submit requests for information in conformity with the Freedom of Information Act or ask the families of the missing to authorize the release of specific documents if law enforcement officials refuse to share information with her. She is committed and determined, and has "a gift for asking the right questions" that Lotham respects and decides to capitalize on. And their attraction is immediate and palpable, but Frankie clearly enunciates her circumstances to ensure that their expectations are manageable and realistic. "Good guys like him have a weakness for train wrecks like me. Just ask Paul," she wryly notes.Frankie is determined that LiLi's case will be her first real success -- she will find the missing girl alive and return her to her family. But she has to stay alive herself in order to do so. With Before She Disappeared, Gardner lives up to her well-earned reputation as "the master of the psychological thriller." Frankie is a uniquely intriguing, credible character to whom readers will find themselves immediately drawn and invested in her well-being as they strive to understand her. And transfixed to see if she succeeds and, perhaps, decides to remain in Boston with a handsome detective. Before She Disappeared is Gardner at her very best, which means it is a page-turner that leaves readers clamoring for the next installment.Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.

[mrsmommybooknerd7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was so good. I adored it cover to cover. I loved how Gardner really brought the main character to life on the page. She was flawed, damaged, but was tough and had the hugest heart. I loved her quest to find the missing and the way her brain worked while working the case. She was an unapologetic lady boss on a mission. I loved that so much. The story was heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measure. I gobbled it up! I must read more by this very gifted writer. She is beyond gifted and a must read!!!

[samantha71020 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gardner is one of my favorite mystery authors because I love her D.D. Warren series so much! I started smack dab in the middle of that one and haven't looked back since. So I jumped at the opportunity to read this one as soon as I heard about it. Let me just say that this is an author who writes books that are not to be missed if you are a mystery reader! From the very beginning, I found myself pulled into this new story with new characters. Frankie Elkin is one of those characters that I couldn't help but root for despite all of her perceived flaws. She is a recovering alcoholic who searches for women who have been gone missing for so long that no one is really looking for them any longer. As the reader, you know that she has more of a darker history that hasn't yet been shared with us. It just made her feel so darn real to me! The book was one that I just flew through the pages of. I couldn't put it down because I was so sucked into the story. And honestly I just really loved this book. I was so excited to hear after finishing this one that it is now going to be the first book in a new series. I cannot wait to read more about Frankie and see what types of trouble she finds herself in next.Overall, this is a book and author that you definitely to check out if you are a mystery reader! I cannot recommend her D.D. Warren series enough - start with Find Her like I did and you will be in for a treat especially if you like darker mysteries. Now, I can also highly recommend this book for those readers who want to start at the beginning of a series because this one is really just as good. This book will easily be on my top reads list of the year and Gardner has become a must read author for me. Highly recommended!Disclosure: I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I ended up reading a print copy from my local library.

[tibobi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Short of It:So far, Gardner has not disappointed me. Loved the amateur detective in this one.The Rest of It:Frankie Elkin is just an ordinary woman who chooses to find the missing people others have forgotten. She asks the questions that others don’t and because she has no personal ties or even a steady job to hold her down, she can blend into the scenery and find the clues that everyone else seems to miss.I really enjoyed Before She Disappeared. Frankie is one of those perfectly flawed characters. As a recovering alcoholic, she is constantly aware of her weaknesses which makes her so likable and easy to relate to. In this installment, because apparently this is Book #1 in the Elkin series, Frankie looks for a young girl who has gone missing. Her family has been holding onto hope for over a year but no new leads have been found. Frankie gets herself a bar job, yep, as a recovering alcoholic it’s what she knows, works out a deal for housing which includes a very hostile feline roommate, and digs into the case.The pacing is really good and I found myself reaching for my Kindle every chance I had. That’s the sign of a good read. I’ve lost count but this was read for 10 Books of Summer.For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fast-paced thriller with an unexpected and flawed heroine. Frankie Elkin is a middle-aged woman, recovering alcoholic with an addiction to finding missing persons. This book will grab you from page one!When 15-year old Angelique, a Haitian immigrant, goes missing from her high school one Friday afternoon, and is still missing after 11 months, Frankie is drawn to the case. Frankie is running from her own demons, but is determined to solve the case. The police are not happy that she is jumping into their case, but when she starts making inroads, they begin to welcome her help.I enjoyed how Frankie worked through the case, I liked the various characters in the book and the complexity of the mystery.I hope there will be more Frankie Elkin books in the future!

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the first half of this novel, but after that it all got a bit repetitive and unbelievable. Frankie never seemed like a wholly convincing character in ways I can't quite put my finger on, and she swung wildly between working closely with the police and shutting them out seemingly on a whim. I'm not sure I really buy the idea of an alcoholic who had no problems working as a bartender either.A quick read.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

According to Frankie Elkin, every recovering addict has another addiction and Frankie’s, a recovering alcoholic, is tracking down missing persons. After the publicity dies down and the police have moved on to other cases, Frankie takes up the cause. She scours national online chat rooms where family members, concerned neighbors and even crazy people (maybe like her) compare notes on various missing persons cases. To date, she has found 14 missing people, none of whom were found alive. Her latest was found on an Indian reservation, in a truck, submerged in a lake, which is modeled after a case from real-life amateur Lissa Yellowbird-Chase. She now arrives in South Station, Boston, to investigate the disappearance of Angelique Badeau, a high achieving Haitian teenager who seemed destined to beat the odds in her tough Haitian community. One Friday, 11 months ago, Angelique left her school in the Mattapan neighborhood and was never seen again. Frankie gets a job at Stoney’s Bar in Mattapan, an immigrant neighborhood, in order to earn money and begins her investigation by talking to the missing girl’s family, the police detective in charge of the case, Dan Lotham, and the Community Liaison officer. She, of course, is met with skepticism by the family and police and as an “average middle-aged white woman” is unwelcome in the largely Haitian and Hispanic community.Yet somehow, this pair of fresh eyes sees things that were missed in the initial investigation and although Lotham is peeved at Frankie, he also realizes that with her help and mutual cooperation, Angelique might be found…whether dead or alive is the real question.I truly liked all the characters in this book, both main and ancillary ones. Angelique and her brother, Emmanuel, are survivors in an economically depressed community where pushing drugs and joining gangs is the norm. Stoney, the bar owner, and Viv, his cook add some comic relief. Even the villans are unexpectedly interesting. For animal lovers, Gardner throws in an engaging but psychotic cat, Piper, as Frankie’s roommate.But Frankie and Lotham are the stars. They are complex characters, especially Frankie, who ultimately learn to like and respect each other. The action is perfect…not overwhelming, not underwhelming, not gratuitous. The ending is totally satisfactory and even leaves room for a sequel…which I personally hope there is.The basis for Before She Disappeared, according to the Author’s Note at the end of the book are the actual informal online networks of amateur detectives who research and investigate these cold case missing persons, often with more success than the police.One reviewer said “…(the book) is a propulsive mystery, one with enough twists and turns to keep even the most seasoned readers of the genre guessing until the end. But it’s also---perhaps more importantly--a fascinating character study, as Frankie wrestles with her own demons even as she grows closer to her goal (of finding Angelique alive)…(it is) a fast-paced story that readers won’t want to put down as they root for Frankie’s success and Angelique’s safety.”This is a 5-star book in my view and all the reviews I read.

[vanessa_menez-453497 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

A new case brings Frankie 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 will be her.
The minute I read the premise of the book; I just couldn’t wait to read it. It was so intriguing.

Once I started reading it, I was engaged right till the end. The plot had everything to make it an excellent read.

I loved the main character, Frankie’s story. The work she does is so amazing. By doing what she does, she manages to give hope to those families of the missing people. Her dealing with her addiction is inspiring. And her investigation was meticulous and fearless.

The supporting characters were also good especially Frankie's co-workers and Detective Lotham. The suspense was maintained throughout the book, and the constant discoveries and twists made the plot interesting

I really do hope this is turns into a series, because I do want to read more of Frankie.

Thank You NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for this ARC!