Look for Me

What is the perfect family? I think I suspected there was no such thing before, but now I know for sure. This nightmare story about haunted survivors, abused foster care kids, and alcoholic parents is hard-hitting. Although the protagonist, Detective Warren, doesn't seem to play a sizable role in this book, other characters step up. Flora Dane is one. She's smart and tough like D. D. and someone you can root for. The chilling and twisty plot choices had me guessing from the first page to the crazy—yet sad—ending.

Look for Me by Lisa Gardner is a highly recommended procedural featuring Boston's Detective D.D. Warren and victim's advocate/vigilante Flora Dane.

D.D. Warren is called to the crime scene where a family is found murdered and the oldest daughter is missing. Charlie Boyd, Juanita Baez, and her children, 13-year-old Lola, and 9-year-old Manny, are all dead, shot in their home. Missing is 16-year-old Roxanna Baez and the family's two elderly dogs. It is unknown if Roxanna was abducted, is missing, or the perpetrator. Warren and her team have to try and find the missing girl while unraveling what happened to the family.

Flora Dane, the kidnapped woman who survived over a year of torture and rape, has made a new life for herself helping other show more victims (Find Her, 2016). She now runs a support group to help empower other women who have endured trauma at the hands of a violent criminal. Roxanna had been in contact with her group before the murders. Now Flora is also looking for the girl, which puts her into an uneasy alliance with Warren.

As the investigation unfolds information comes out that Juanita wasn't always the ideal mother and her children had been in the foster care system for a year while she cleaned up her act. The girls were eventually reunited with their mother, but they were changed. Flora suspects that something happened to them when they were in the system. These suspicions are confirmed in the multiple parts of Roxanna's school essay titled "The Perfect Family" that interspersed in the novel. They reveal part of what Roxanna and Lola went through in the system and at the foster home of Mother Del. These essays add a depth and intensity to the novel.

Look for Me is a very well written, gripping novel of suspense. The plot is well-paced, which keeps the investigation moving along briskly while the tension slowly rises. Like many readers, I appreciate the research and details that Gardner adds to her novels that provide additional insight in to the characters and make the subject matter feel timely. While savvy readers will likely figure out who done it rather early, that shouldn't lessen the enjoyment of this novel. It certainly didn't for me.

Although this is part of an ongoing series, you can read Look for Me as a stand-alone novel as character background is explained along with the uneasy relationship between D.D. and Flora. They are both established characters, but there is enough personal information shared to continue the character development while following the investigation. I enjoyed the interaction between the two this time and look forward to seeing them work together in the future.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
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I love this series! Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren finds herself working with survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane to find a missing teenaged girl, the only apparent survivor of the mass murder of her entire family. Or is the teenaged girl a suspect? As D.D. and Flora go their own paths in the search for Roxanna Baez, they learn of her family's complicated past and have to determine how much of the past is to blame for what is happening in the present.

Lisa Gardner's writing always hooks me right from the start and never lets me go. She keeps the story moving at a fast pace. The chapters alternate focus between D.D. (told in 3rd person) and Flora (told in 1st person). I liked this variance - the 1st person voice is always more intimate, show more and I felt that I was really getting into Flora's head whenever it was her chapter. The 3rd person voice basically helped move the plot along faster. Toward the end of the book, the voices alternated within the same chapter, with just a break between voices. This mimicked the rising tension and increased pace of the plot as things came to a head. Everything started moving faster.

When I first picked up this book, I wasn't sure that I would like having Flora as such a big part of it. I didn't really like her in the last book. As it turns out, I liked her very much in this book. The way Gardner uses her but stays realistic to Flora's inner demons really worked. I look forward to reading book #10 with more of Flora and D.D. working together. show less

Read: April 2018
Rating: 4/5 stars

After my disappointment with Find Her, I was so pleased to find that Look For Me is a brilliant return to form. Gardner has brought back Flora Dane from Find Her and I really like the way this character has been developed and the interactions between DD Warren and Flora. The plot centres on Roxy, a sixteen year old girl who is the sole survivor of a family massacre, but she is missing. DD and Flora form an alliance as they try to find the missing teenager, and also work out if she could have been responsible for killing her entire family.
The sections of the novel written from Roxy's perspective as she details her experience of foster care was so sad to read, especially as this is probably the reality for show more many children in the care system.
I'm now looking forward to the next book in this series! show less

Lisa Gardner is one of my favorite authors. And for good reason.
She’s good. Very good. Case in point: LOOK FOR ME, the latest in her D.D. Warren series. The story has too many twists and turns to count, but it’s the characters that drive it, and make it impossible to put down. The story revolves around three tough and smart women: Detective D.D. Warren, of course; Flora Dane, a survivor and avenger who teaches other survivors how to navigate life, and seek revenge; and the irrepressible Roxy, a sixteen year old whose entire family has been massacred. Is Roxy a victim, or a killer? If not her, then who? And why? With Roxy on the run, D.D. and Flora must find her and uncover a dark truth. This is a great story.

DP Lyle, award-winning show more author, lecturer, story consultant show less

I have wanted for a long time to read a Lisa Gardner book, so I was thrilled when I got the chance to read book nine in the Detective D.D. Warren series. Since I'm a newbie when it came to this series did I not have any previous knowledge about the characters in this book, but I'm pleased to say that I have found myself a new favorite series!

The story starts off with a BANG! Frankly, this is one of the best intros I have ever read when it comes to a crime novel and I was instantly hooked. And, the book never got boring. I found both Detective D.D. Warren and vigilante Flora Dane to be interesting characters in their own ways, and I loved to follow the investigations from their different perspectives. I need to get to the past books in show more the series, both because I want to know more about D.D's past, but also get Flora's story.

The story is very tragic, and towards the last 100 pages of the book did I start to suspect the killer's identity and yeah I was right about it. But, it didn't bother me, it was more a feeling of almost dread when I started to suspect the truth. It's a book about consequences and thinking back to what started it all, how people's decisions in the end led to the killing of almost a whole family is heartbreaking. Thankfully is there some really sweet moments in the book as well with D.D's son getting a puppy.

This is my first Lisa Gardner book, but it sure isn't my last!

I want to thank Dutton for providing me with a free copy through Edelweiss for an honest review show less

Look For Me
3 Stars

Homicide detective D. D. Warren and survivor turned vigilante Flora Dane team up to locate a teenage girl who may or may not have murdered her entire family.

The purpose of a prologue in a novel is to set the stage. Unfortunately, the prologue in this installment is completely superfluous as it has nothing to do with the rest of the book.

With that out of the way, Look for Me has a great deal of potential. The case is compelling, mainly due to the realistic and insightful portrayal of the foster system in the United States. I found it particularly interesting that the focus was not on the oft-presented abuse by adults, but rather on the traumas that children inflict on one another.

There is also some good character show more development for both D. D. and Flora. Life as a loving wife and mother to a precocious toddler has softened D. D.'s edges and made her more likable than the prickly defensive detective from the beginning of the series. In contrast, Flora is coming to realize just how risky her choices are, both for herself and for others.

Gardner's trademark alternating perspectives between first person for Flora and Roxy, and third person for D. D. adds intensity and allows the reader to truly identify with the characters although I'm still not sure what to think of Flora's character - does she really care about justice or is it all about revenge? show less