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.
The Review
GONE FOR GOOD
by Joanna Schauffhausen
This book reminds me so much of a couple of different thriller series. If you liked either The UNSUB series by Meg Gardiner or the Rizzoli and Isles series by Tess Gerritsen then I think you’ll like this series.
This book features Annalisa Vega, a detective on the case of a killer who dispatches his victims like farm poultry.
She’s on the case with her ex-husband and is getting a BTS look at the case by talking with her retired detective dad.
The premise of a possible copycat or return killer was very interesting but one that I’ve read a few times before. I was looking for this one to be different and stand on its own.
And it did somewhat.
The twist was pretty good which perhaps saved the book from being rated lower. But unfortunately, the way the story unfolds is kind of basic and a lot like a lot of other detective crime series books with a female lead character.
I liked this one enough that I am going to check out the next book in the series coming out in August.
Have you read GONE FOR GOOD?
GONE FOR GOOD…⭐️⭐️⭐️
When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small Pennsylvania town, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. Immediately shut out by a local police department already stretched thin by budget cuts and the growing OxyContin and meth epidemic, Vega enlists the help of a disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. Cap is a man trying to put the scandal of his past behind him and move on, but Vega needs his help to find the girls, and she will not be denied.
With little to go on, Vega and Cap will go to extraordinary lengths to untangle a dangerous web of lies, false leads, and complex relationships to find the girls before time runs out, and they are gone forever.
The Review
TWO GIRLS DOWN
Louisa Luna
Don’t let these horrible covers persuade you to pass this one up. It’s a gem and since no one talking about the series it’s an underrated gem.
With a Goodreads rating of 3.85 with only around 2,000 reviews, it’s not getting the rounds it deserves.
I love Alice and Cap’s relationship and I LOVE their partnership.
I also really love Louisa Luna’s writing. It’s quick and people smart. The case we’re following in TWO GIRLS DOWN is interesting and the narration for the audiobook is cumbersome but flawlessly executed
There’s one character towards the end that made my jaw hurt while reading her section. It was an immersive experience not often found in everyday thrillers.
I think this is due to the success of the character building. The characters and depth of the story lead to a procedural that is both layered and textured.
The depth is what makes LOUISA LUNA an auto-buy author. Even if the characters were to change her craft will carry the story.
Loved this one!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
