Author: Joanna Schaffhausen
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: August 10, 2021
Order Link: Amazon
My Rating: 4
Special thanks to Minotaur Books for an arc of this book.
#minotaurinfluencers
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.
Review:
Detective Annalisa Vega is called to the scene of a gruesome murder - one that brings back memories of the unsolved murder of her childhood friend's mother twenty plus years ago. The Lovelorn Killer was responsible for the brutal murder of several women back then, but afterwards disappeared without a trace. The dead woman bound in ropes tells Det. Vega that the killer's back after a twenty year hiatus? Why? Is this Annalisa's opportunity to finally get justice for the victims' loved ones, healing some old wounds? Can she do so without becoming his next victim?
Grace Harper is the killer's latest victim. By day, she was a grocery store clerk. By night, she was a member of an amateur sleuth group known as The Grave Diggers. Grace was obsessed with the Lovelorn Killer and by all reports, may have been getting close to discovering his identity - something the police have never been able to do - before he killed her. In order to investigate the crime, Det. Vega will have to dig deeper into the group's activities and her own disturbing childhood and follow the leads from there. It isn't long before she starts rattling some skeletons of her own and begins being taunted by the killer. With the help of her partner Nick who's also her ex-husband and a teenage love interest, Colin, who's mother was murdered by the killer, Annalisa refuses to be intimidated into abandoning the case. Will it get her killed?
Gone For Good is an intense, fast-paced, action-packed thriller that kept me turning pages from beginning to end. Det. Annalisa Vega is a strong, bold, smart heroine who refuses to back down when threatened. The story unfolds through alternating chapters of present and victim Grace Harper's journal entries which are electrifying. The tension elevates until culminating in an explosive climax. I will say I figured out the killer's identity prior to the reveal, but the story is so well crafted that being pretty sure of his identity in no way lessened my reading pleasure as I read most of this one in one sitting. Highly recommended to fans of mystery, suspense and thrillers.
Synopsis:
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.
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.
Joanna Schaffhausen wields a mean scalpel, skills she developed in her years studying neuroscience. She has a doctorate in psychology, which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain―how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong. Previously, she worked as a scientific editor in the field of drug development. Prior to that, she was an editorial producer for ABC News, writing for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, daughter, and an obstreperous basset hound.
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