Look for me : a novel /

*Starred Review* Detective D. D. Warren draws a red-ball case in a quiet Boston neighborhood: four members of a family have been murdered in their home, and a teenage girl is missing. D. D. doubts the obvious murder-suicide scenario: by all accounts, Charlie Boyd and Juanita Baez were happy together, and the missing teenager, Roxanna Baez, was devoted to her siblings. Unapologetic vigilante Flora Dane (introduced in Find Her, 2016) has been dedicated to rescuing abuse victims since her own liberation from torture as a sadistic killer's captive. Now she contacts D. D. to let her know that Roxanna recently joined her group for self-defense advice but never revealed whom she feared. Uninhibited by protocol, Flora quickly gathers leads: Roxanna and her late sister Lola Baez spent a year in an abusive foster home near the murder scene, and 13-year-old Lola had recently joined a street gang. Ignoring fellow detectives' protests, D. D. makes Flora an informant, and the detective and vigilante work in tandem to systematically unwind Roxanna's life. Gardner alternates gripping narratives of D. D. and Flora's investigation with Roxanna's essays about family, illuminating the vulnerability of children in America's strained, deeply flawed foster-care system. Suspenseful and wholly believable, this ninth entry will win new fans for the series, especially among those who favor Karin Slaughter's gritty procedurals. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Combine the kind of subject matter likely to draw off-the-book-page interest with Gardner's already substantial following and a strong social-media campaign, and you have a book sure to generate buzz.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2017 Booklist

In Thriller Award-winner Gardner's exciting ninth novel featuring Boston Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren (after 2016's Find Her), four members of a family of five have been gunned down in their home, and the only survivor, 16-year-old Roxanna Baez, a former foster child, is on the run. Convinced that Roxy will have some answers, D.D. makes finding her a priority. Meanwhile, scrappy Flora Dane, who survived more than a year of torture and rape at the hands of a sadistic long-haul trucker before her rescue five years earlier, has made a new life for herself helping other victims, and Roxanna has come to her attention. Flora, who has helped D.D. before, offers what information she has, but not without expecting something in return. D.D. and Flora each pursue different avenues of investigation, uncovering shocking secrets about a family in crisis and a troubled teen who has nothing to lose. Gardner shines a heartbreaking light on foster care abuse while steadily ratcheting up the tension to a genuinely surprising and emotional finale. Author tour. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Det. D.D. Warren is back, along with self-appointed vigilante Flora Dane (Find Her). When D.D. gets the call about a domestic case, she knows this is more than a family crisis that's gotten out of hand. In fact, it is a homicide investigation involving the brutal murders of four family members, with a fifth, 16-year-old Roxanna, D.D. is betting she can solve the murders if she can locate the teen. At the same time, Flora Dane, a kidnapping survivor-turned-avenger, thinks she might have an edge and races to find Roxanna, whom she suspects is an abuse victim not unlike herself. Both D.D. and Flora, seeking justice for different reasons, pursue the missing girl and the truth of what really happened to her family, but time is running out and the killer is still on the loose. VERDICT The twists and turns in this gripping D.D. Warren adventure will keep readers turning the pages. [See Prepub Alert, 8/13/17.]--Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ. Lib., Florence, SC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The execution-style murders of a family and the disappearance of their eldest daughter once again bring together a seasoned homicide detective and a kidnap victim-turned-vigilante to find the killer.In the Boston suburb of Brighton, it's Detective D.D. Warren's (Find Her, 2016, etc.) least favorite kind of crime: the slaughter of a family. Juanita Baez, her boyfriend, Charlie Boyd, her 13-year-old daughter, Lola, and her 9-year-old son, Manny, are all dead, shot to death in their home. Conspicuously absent are 16-year-old Roxanna Baez and the family's two elderly dogs. Warren and her team weigh the possibility that Roxy was abducted or the more chilling one: that she murdered her family. Turns out Juanita wasn't always a perfect mother; the state removed her children five years earlier due to her drinking, placing the girls in the almost Dickensian Mother Del's foster home, where all manner of abuse went on under the radar. In a rare instance of family reunification, Juanita regained custody, but the girls' time in foster care changed them. In an awkwardly patched-in subplot, another Gardner regular, kidnap survivor Flora Dane, who now runs a support/empowerment group of sorts for women who've lived through similar trauma, realizes Roxy approached her group before disappearing, making Flora determined to find her before the police do. She and D.D. enter an uneasy, and entirely preposterous, partnership, each exploring her own leads in a case that, while tragic, becomes more predictable with each supposed wrinkle and stereotypical villain.Despite Gardner's considerable research into the foster-care system, her plot is a tired one populated with cardboard characters and twists any savvy reader will see coming a mile away. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.