Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: August 10, 2021
Source: Publisher
Summary:
Gone For Good is the first in a new mystery series from award-winning author Joanna Schaffhausen, featuring Detective Annalisa Vega, in which a cold case heats up.
The Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women, ritually binding them and leaving them for dead before penning them gruesome love letters in the local papers. Then he disappeared, and after twenty years with no trace of him, many believe that he’s gone for good.
Not Grace Harper. A grocery store manager by day, at night Grace uses her snooping skills as part of an amateur sleuth group. She believes the Lovelorn Killer is still living in the same neighborhoods that he hunted in, and if she can figure out how he selected his victims, she will have the key to his identity.
Detective Annalisa Vega lost someone she loved to the killer. Now she’s at a murder scene with the worst kind of déjà vu: Grace Harper lies bound and dead on the floor, surrounded by clues to the biggest murder case that Chicago homicide never solved. Annalisa has the chance to make it right and to heal her family, but first, she has to figure out what Grace knew―how to see a killer who may be standing right in front of you. This means tracing his steps back to her childhood, peering into dark corners she hadn’t acknowledged before, and learning that despite everything the killer took, she has still so much more to lose.
My thoughts:
This is the first in a new series by Joanna Schaffhausen and I was so excited to read it. I was first introduced to this author when I came across her Elle Hathaway series, which I absolutely love, so I knew I had to read this one and let me just say, it is off to a fantastic start!
A book about serial killers is my kind of read and when you add in a kick-a** female lead, I’m all in! Detective Annalisa Vega is my favorite kind of protagonist – she’s tough-as-nails and feisty, yet also has a softer side to her. She’s flawed and fearless and I am so excited that this is just the start of a series because I definitely want more of her!
I also loved how there were chapters told from the point of view of the amateur sleuth, Grace up until her death. These chapters were equal parts telling and chilling because they gave us so much information about the cases that Grace and her team were uncovering but also because Grace herself was so close to discovering the actual Lovelorn killer…until he got to her first.
This is a fast-paced book that I could not read fast enough. There were just the right amount of twists and turns to keep you guessing and I absolutely did not see that final twist coming until the reveal. I completely binge-read this one and loved every second of it. And am so glad to know that there is more coming in this series…the only issue is that we have to wait for the next book to be released!
