According to the author’s note at the end of BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED, Lisa Gardner was inspired to write this novel and create the character of Frankie Elkin when she learned about an informal online network of amateur detectives who research and investigate missing persons and other cold cases, often months or years after professional investigators and the police have moved on. In many cases, these amateurs have more success than the professionals. Gardner, like any good novelist, wondered what kind of person might choose to devote his or her life to a cause --- often a heartbreaking one --- like this.

Thus the unforgettable Frankie Elkin was born. Since beginning this work several years ago, she has successfully found more than a dozen missing people but has yet to find any of them alive. Frankie is gratified that she has been able to give these victims and their families, many of whom come from disadvantaged communities and communities of color, the answers they deserve. But she keeps hoping beyond hope that her next case will result in a happier ending.

"BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED is a propulsive mystery, one with enough twists and turns to keep even the most seasoned readers of the genre guessing until the end. But it’s also --- perhaps more importantly --- a fascinating character study..."

That’s what brings Frankie to the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan. Nearly a year earlier, there was an abrupt disappearance of a teenage girl, a Haitian immigrant with a loving and supportive family, a young woman who dreams of attending medical school and seems (with the exception of an imminently expiring visa) to be on track to realize those dreams. Angelique Badeau certainly doesn’t fit the profile of a typical runaway, even if that’s what some members of the police department might suggest. Nor is there any indication that she has become involved in drugs, gangs or prostitution, despite Mattapan’s reputation as a crime-ridden and dangerous area of the city.

Frankie is used to feeling like an outsider, so she is well equipped to settle into Mattapan, despite being one of the only white people in her neighborhood. She lands a job as a bartender that comes with free housing in the tiny apartment above the bar, and she soon develops an understanding of the neighborhood’s social networks and power players, especially among the high school crowd. Frankie discovers that Angelique’s beloved younger brother is behind the online postings that brought Angelique’s case to her attention in the first place. With his help, she begins to gain the trust of the community, even as she accumulates both suspicion and grudging respect from the Boston police detectives assigned to the case.

Make no mistake: BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED is a propulsive mystery, one with enough twists and turns to keep even the most seasoned readers of the genre guessing until the end. But it’s also --- perhaps more importantly --- a fascinating character study, as Frankie wrestles with her own demons even as she grows closer to her goal. She is a recovering alcoholic, and Gardner brilliantly illustrates her daily struggle with her addiction, as well as how she uses informal networks like Alcoholics Anonymous to understand the new communities in which she finds herself. Frankie even wonders, at times, if being a recovering addict gives her a different vantage point on the world, enabling her to see things that others might not, to make connections and to listen in a way that might elude others.

Speaking as a Boston resident, Gardner’s novel is also a portrait of an often maligned and misunderstood neighborhood. Too often it is characterized as “just” about gangs and violence, but, as Frankie’s investigation makes clear, it is full of individuals who are fiercely proud of the businesses they’ve built, passionately protective of their neighbors, and eager to make their neighborhood safer and more supportive of its young people. BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED is all of these things, wrapped up in a fast-paced story that readers won’t want to put down as they root for Frankie’s success and Angelique’s safety.