GONE FOR GOOD by Joanna Schaffhausen

 

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 was such a good book. I would have given it a big 5/5 stars but I did figure out who the killer was almost as soon as he was mentioned. It just seemed right. 

This book will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. It is a great thriller that will definitely keep you guessing too. Unfortunately for me I figured out who the killer was though that did not take away from the story in any way and I was not positive until the end when it was revealed. Also there are a few twists that will keep you turning the pages. Some things you will not see coming. And that big twist near the end. It was fantastic. 

This book is well written. It has that thrill that keeps you turning the pages until you find that final ending that makes you gasp. The twists and turns are spot on. The storyline could have been ripped from the headlines. The descriptions are just perfect. The family in this book is great. Both Annalisa's birth family and her cop family. The loves in her life and the losses. You feel her feelings. Her thoughts are deep. She truly wants to find out the truth of the Lovelorn Killer. She is almost honest to a fault. I suppose she is. She does not give in to anything. A fierce fighter all the way. 

Her family faces a lot of obstacles and she is there for them. Her friends and people she meets along the way are seemingly dependent on her in many ways. Though she needs them too. When Annalisa is called to the home of a slain woman named Grace little does she know what life has in store for her. Grace was a strong woman also. A very smart one too. She had no idea what was coming for her. Or did she? Maybe? She helped solve a case that was over twenty years old, in her own way. But at what cost?

I truly did enjoy this book. It made me cry in parts but was so worth it. The tension was well worth it also. The thrills just kept coming. You are going to love this if you are a thriller fan.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #JoannaSchaffhausen, #StMartins for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

4/5 stars and a very high recommendation. This author did not disappoint at all.