The Frankie Elkin series by Lisa Gardner includes Before She Disappeared (2021), One Step Too Far (2022), and Still See You Everywhere (2024).
Our Sleuth: Frankie Elkin, a recovering alcoholic and “average, middle-aged white woman,” travels from one missing-persons case to another, wheeling a single suitcase of meager belongings. She’s a bartender to make ends meet while she searches for those missing so long that most have given up hope.
The Setting: This varies by book as Elkin travels, usually by Greyhound bus, from one failed missing persons case to another. In her first outing, we’re in a rough neighborhood of Boston called Mattapan, known to locals as Murderpan. Then she heads to the Wyoming wilderness. In book three, we’re off to a small remote island near Hawaii.
The Premise: Elkin is running from a tragedy in her past, one that resulted in the death of a loved one. She blames herself and her alcoholism, so she’s gotten sober and decided her only value is in doing something she’s naturally good at. That’s finding missing people that police either ignore or have stopped looking for — young Black women, abducted Hawaiian girls, hikers missing for years.
My Take: I adore the character of Frankie and watching her settle into each environment, learning the rhythms of each place and its people, tugging on the strands of unanswered questions until she discovers a way forward. She’s often wrong and ill-prepared for what she’s learning — hair clips are the most dangerous weapon she carries in book one — but she refuses to give up. For all her flaws, and these become abundantly clear, it’s hard not to root for her and her adamant belief that every family deserves to have their loved ones brought home, dead or alive.
Gardner is a skilled and prolific writer, and that’s evident in this series. I was particularly struck by her use of research and detail to bring life to such diverse settings. We learn about high schoolers and the Haitian community in Mattapan, about the growing problem of people missing on public lands, and about carnivorous crabs on an atoll in the Pacific. She weaves all this and more into stories with page-turning plots and nuanced characters.
Opening Lines: Before She Disappeared
The water feels like a cold caress against my face. I kick deeper down into the gloom, my long hair trailing behind me like a dark eel. I’m wearing clothes. Jeans, tennis shoes, a T-shirt topped with an open windbreaker that wings out and slows my descent. My clothing grows heavier and heavier till I can barely flutter my legs, work my arms.
Why am I in clothes?
Heads Up: The author, who’s well known for her thrillers, favors serial killers and there’s explicit violence in the books, including child and sexual abuse. I’ve classified them as noir for this reason.
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