Xepherus Reads

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,          Before She Disappeared is Lisa Gardner's twenty-sixth thriller. It is published by Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. In this first novel in her new series, Gardner introduces us to Frankie Elkin. Elkin, an alcoholic since her teens, has ridden the addiction train into oblivion on several occasions. All culminating in the death of a loved one. She is dusted off and ready to make her part of the world better. Over ten missing persons cases later, she has found every one of them. Traveling with the bare minimum of personal possessions, she goes from town to town looking for those the police have given up on. Her latest case has her headed to Boston and the area of Mattapan. A local Haitian teen, Angelique Badeau, remains missing after a year. This does not sit well with Frankie.   She enters the predominately Haitian neighborhood only to be met with caution and criticism. But Frankie kn...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,      The Other Daughter is a stand-alone novel written by Lisa Gardner. It is published by Bantam Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House Publishing. In it, we are introduced to the Stokes family. Having suffered the tragic loss of their four-year-old daughter, Meagan, to child murderer Russell Lee Holmes, parents Harper and Patricia are devastated. They continue on with their remaining child, Brian. Five years later on the night of Holmes' execution, a nine-year-old girl with memory loss is found abandoned in a Boston hospital where Harper is working the night shift. Harper and Patricia continue to visit her daily and decide to adopt her. Since she has a close resemblance to Meagan, she seems to be the right child to adopt. She is named Melanie and goes to live with them in their lavish home in Boston.   Twenty years later Melanie is an event planner with a hap...

  Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,     A mysterious stranger follows a young girl. Her father flees state to state with her for decades to remain one step ahead of their pursuer. And now a young woman, that girl discovers her name is on the news as one of six bodies found in a serial killer's pit of anguish.        Hide is the second novel in Lisa Gardner's Detective D.D. Warren series. It is published by Bantam Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. In this often tense thriller, we are in pursuit of a serial killer that has left a pit with six dead girls in it. A place of torture and pain, the pit lies underground near a closed mental institution. Detective D.D. Warren and her former lover, Bobby Dodge, celebrate his induction into the force as a detective with this latest case. As the investigation continues, they meet Annabelle Granger, whose necklace was found around the neck of one of the victims. She weaves an astonishing tale ...