Before She Disappeared

A Novel

By: Lisa Gardner

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

©2021 Lisa Gardner. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

One of my favorite authors...

Lisa Gardner’s newest protagonist is a flawed heroine. She’s an alcoholic on a mission. She’s good at what she does. Her name is Frankie Elkin and she finds lost and missing people who are in a minority. The ones that get the least attention from law enforcement. The cases that are cold.

Frankie find a case of a missing Haitian girl in Boston. At first the police want nothing to do with her. Eventually she gets them to warm to her but not necessarily the rough neighborhood the girl is from. When she first goes to the family’s home she is shot at. How can she help them is she can’t get near them?

My only question is does this signal the end of the DD Warren series?
Hilary Huber does an outstanding job narrating.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
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Thank You.

This was a perfect book for me!

After watching The Keepers on Netflix, I wanted to attempt solving a cold case. I lived vicariously through Frankie. She is recovering alcoholic and her honesty admitting her weaknesses is refreshing. She does not think she is a savior.

The talented narrator was perfect..

Hopefully this is going to continue as a series.

Always love LG but...

Lisa Gardner is my favorite author. If you have never read any of her books, do not start with this one, even though it is a stand alone. It was a good book, but it was not as good as most of her other books.

I thought this book was kind of slow and lacked the page turning, sleepless night of the previous books. HOWEVER, I do not regret purchasing it or listening to it. The story was engaging and I loved the character development.

I will continue to look for more books by LG, because she is the BEST!

The performance is horrible

I’m about a quarter through this book, and while the story is engaging, I can’t get past the the voice actors doing the dialogue, or the dialogue itself. If you are going to write stories that center on black people, please hire black actors and black people for support. As a Haitian woman, the voices, the assumptions are incredibly inauthentic and take away from the experience.

OMG!!!!

This book is fantastic!!!
I loved every single minute of it!!
I've always been a huge fan of Lisa Gardner, so i wasn't surprised that it's so good but it's way beyond what i expected.

Narration:
I must be honest, I've never been a Hillary Huber fan. She wasn't a deal breaker. i could tolerate her but she wasn't a favorite. But SHE IS Frankie Elkin. She is absolutely wonderful!

DId i mention that I LOVED THIS BOOK!!?? Please let this turn into a series! i want more of Frankie and the Detective!!

Horribly written book read by a truly horrible narrator

This is probably one of the worst books I’ve ever encountered. The plot was terrible, the dialogue painful. While I understand this is a fictional book, it lacked any type of creativity and the entirety of it was so unrealistic and poorly written that it was painful. It’s a poor man’s version of a Janet Evanovich book.

I was surprised to find that the narrator, Hillary Huber, has narrated so many books. Her monotone voice sounds eerily similar to Siri. And hearing her do the voices of the characters in this book make me cringe. I recommend this book to no one. Don’t waste your time or money. It’s horrific.

Excessive unneccesary use of the F word

What’s up with the foul vulgar language half way through the story line. I finally stopped listening and will get a credit back.

Not one of her best books.

I considered returning it but ended up finishing it. The plot and characters seemed weak. The end was dissapointing.

Just ok

The narrator is was lackluster. The story was just ok. The main character was unusual and a little annoying. I would pass on this Lisa
Gardner book. Sorry

Not a fan

I have read ALL of Lisa’s books and loved all of them.... except this one.