Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen
Series Name: Detective Annalisa Vega Mystery #1
Genre: Police Procedural
Release: August 10, 2021
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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.
Dru’s Short Musing:
All I can say is wow. The author pulled out a fast one in this riveting and intensifying drama that I could not put down until all was said and done. A serial killer, an amateur sleuth group and the lead detective all take center stage in this well-written prose that kept me immersed in all aspects as I watch this wickedly devilish plot play out. The author provided plenty of suspects and it was the details that set the course that would lead to a few twists and turns that enhanced how well this story was being told. The pacing reached a frenetic pitched as the story moved forward with a few surprises thrown in that I did not see coming. Explosive and a grippingly enticing read that earned my praised. Kudos to the author. Well-done.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.