Look For Me – Lisa Gardner
I received this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.
Detective Sergeant DD Warren is back, this time to investigate the slaying of a small family in Boston’s Brighton section. There she finds four family members dead, nothing of value missing, and the oldest child of the family missing, along with the famil’es’ two dogs. Is missing teenaged Roxanne the killer, or running scared?
Enter Flora Dane, a vigilante of sorts, who after surviving a kidnapping and torture of her own, now runs private chat rooms and teaches other victims how to protect themselves and go on living. Her newest rescue is Sara, a young woman who survived the brutal slayings of her roommates after a one night stand goes awry. They approach DD with information of their own as they realize Roxanne has been reaching out to them in their chat room, and DD grudgingly agrees to name her a confidential informant (CI).
As the investigation continues, we learn more about Roxanne and her siblings from Roxanne herself, as she re-lives the horror of she and her siblings being removed from her mother and being placed in foster homes – and we learn through her, that not all foster homes are safe and loving homes, and kids prey upon other kids in the name of survival.
As the action heats up and Roxanne is finally located, more questions than answers arise, until a stunning standoff reveals all is not as it seems, and even the most passive bystander is not quite what they seem to be…
A fabulous new addition to the DD Warren series, and one I read late into the night as it was too good to put down! While based on fictitious events, this book parallels the realities that some children in ‘the system’ face and will leave you wondering about the state of our ‘Child Protective Services’ for a long time to come…
Tropical Delusions...... 