Look for Me (Detective D. D. Warren Series #9)

by Lisa Gardner Narrated by Kirsten Potter

Overview

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner's latest twisty thrill ride, Detective D. D. Warren and Find Her's Flora Dane return in a race against the clock to either save a young girl's life . . . or bring her to justice.

The home of a family of five is now a crime scene: four of them savagely murdered, one-a sixteen-year-old girl-missing. Was she lucky to have escaped? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister? Detective D. D. Warren is on the case-but so is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane. Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who, whether as victim or suspect, is silently pleading, Look for me.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

12/11/2017
In Thriller Award–winner Gardner’s exciting ninth novel featuring Boston Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren (after 2016’s Find Her), four members of a family of five have been gunned down in their home, and the only survivor, 16-year-old Roxanna Baez, a former foster child, is on the run. Convinced that Roxy will have some answers, D.D. makes finding her a priority. Meanwhile, scrappy Flora Dane, who survived more than a year of torture and rape at the hands of a sadistic long-haul trucker before her rescue five years earlier, has made a new life for herself helping other victims, and Roxanna has come to her attention. Flora, who has helped D.D. before, offers what information she has, but not without expecting something in return. D.D. and Flora each pursue different avenues of investigation, uncovering shocking secrets about a family in crisis and a troubled teen who has nothing to lose. Gardner shines a heartbreaking light on foster care abuse while steadily ratcheting up the tension to a genuinely surprising and emotional finale. Author tour. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Feb.)

From the Publisher

Praise for Look for Me

“Look for Me starts with a bang and never lets up! It’s an utterly absorbing story about troubled families and twisted fates. You won’t be able to put it down—and it will haunt you long after you turn the final page.”—Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House

“Family, friendships, and foster relationships are explored in this emotional, page-turning thriller.”—USA Today

"Gardner has a talent when it comes to exploring uncomfortable topics and the various psychological aspects that accompany them while evoking truly emotional responses. . . . Though the material Gardner writes about might sometimes be dark, she knows how to shine a light and generate optimism when all looks lost.”—Associated Press

"Gardner has tackled a tough subject with some complicated protagonists. . . . Fans will find the result satisfying as ever.”—Florida Times-Union

“Suspenseful and wholly believable, this ninth entry will win new fans for the series, especially among those who favor Karin Slaughter's gritty procedurals.”—Booklist (starred review)

“A splendidly dark foray into the blood-soaked reality of family secrets and squabbles, and a relentless page-turner of a tale chock-full of Gardner’s trademark twists and turns.”—Providence Journal

“Gardner shines a heartbreaking light on foster care abuse while steadily ratcheting up the tension to a genuinely surprising and emotional finale.”—Publishers Weekly

“The twists and turns in this gripping D. D. Warren adventure will keep readers turning the pages.”—Library Journal

“Master storyteller Gardner does an outstanding job delicately building the evolving relationship between these two damaged but strong women. . . . As always, the plot is intricate and intense.”—RT Book Reviews

“A complex crime scene, a missing girl, a ticking clock: no one writes a more page-turning, gut-wrenching thriller.”—Tess Gerritsen, bestselling author of I Know a Secret

“Gardner again proves herself as a top thriller writer. . . . The tense Look for Me forcefully delves into family dynamics while also exploring the failures of foster care.”—Sun-Sentinel (South Florida)

"[A] twisty thrill ride.”—The Conway Daily Sun 

“Terror, twists, and trepidation. Look for Me is a triple-salvo thriller.”—Kathy Reichs, bestselling author of Two Nights and the Temperance Brennan series

Praise for Lisa Gardner

“You'll read Find Her for its adrenaline-charged plot. You'll remember it for its insights into trauma and forgiveness.”—Oprah.com

“A psychological thriller both chilling and emotional. Her narrative thrums with heart-pounding scenes and unexpected twists that have you furiously flipping pages.”—USA Today's Happy Ever After on Find Her

“The line between mysteries and thrillers and so-called literary fiction has always been a thin one, but contemporary writers like Gardner make that sort of arbitrary distinction seem especially foolish. . . . Find Her . . . is a taut, brilliantly constructed look at the same sort of horrific situation that powered Emma Donoghue’s Room."—Connecticut Post

FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile

Kirsten Potter narrates a dark plot involving the brutal murder of an entire family, except for the eldest daughter, Roxy. Fast-talking, snarky detective D.D. Warren is on the case, and survivor turned vigilante Flora Dane assists despite D.D.'s protests. As they investigate the underfunded foster care system, both caregivers and social workers, Potter increases her pacing and finds a gentle but dispassionate tone for many passages. During the search for Roxy Baez, Potter's empathetic reading of Roxy's essays on the perfect family deepen the listener’s emotional connection, demonstrating how pitch and cadence can enrich a story. Listeners will enjoy Potter’s Boston accent, too. Filled with passion and suspense, this cleverly plotted mystery is heartbreaking and eye-opening. S.C.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2017-11-14
The execution-style murders of a family and the disappearance of their eldest daughter once again bring together a seasoned homicide detective and a kidnap victim-turned-vigilante to find the killer.In the Boston suburb of Brighton, it's Detective D.D. Warren's (Find Her, 2016, etc.) least favorite kind of crime: the slaughter of a family. Juanita Baez, her boyfriend, Charlie Boyd, her 13-year-old daughter, Lola, and her 9-year-old son, Manny, are all dead, shot to death in their home. Conspicuously absent are 16-year-old Roxanna Baez and the family's two elderly dogs. Warren and her team weigh the possibility that Roxy was abducted or the more chilling one: that she murdered her family. Turns out Juanita wasn't always a perfect mother; the state removed her children five years earlier due to her drinking, placing the girls in the almost Dickensian Mother Del's foster home, where all manner of abuse went on under the radar. In a rare instance of family reunification, Juanita regained custody, but the girls' time in foster care changed them. In an awkwardly patched-in subplot, another Gardner regular, kidnap survivor Flora Dane, who now runs a support/empowerment group of sorts for women who've lived through similar trauma, realizes Roxy approached her group before disappearing, making Flora determined to find her before the police do. She and D.D. enter an uneasy, and entirely preposterous, partnership, each exploring her own leads in a case that, while tragic, becomes more predictable with each supposed wrinkle and stereotypical villain.Despite Gardner's considerable research into the foster-care system, her plot is a tired one populated with cardboard characters and twists any savvy reader will see coming a mile away.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169558258
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	02/06/2018
Series:	Detective D. D. Warren Series , #9
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof***
Prologue

A year later, what Sarah remembered most was waking up to the sound of giggling.

"Shhh. Not so loud! My roommates hate it when I bring boys home. Killjoys need their beauty sleep."

"So, no making noises? Like this?" A wolf howl from outside Sar­ah's bedroom door.

Fresh giggling. Then loud thumps as someone, probably Heidi, ran into the coffee table, the couch, the standing lamp.

"Oh well," Heidi announced. "Quiet was never gonna happen. I'm a screamer and proud of it."

A man's voice: "Knew I picked the right girl at the bar. I like scream­ers. Always have."

More giggling, more thumps.

Sarah groaned, rolled face down on her tiny mattress, and pulled her pillow over her head. On the opposite side of the wall, no doubt Christy and Kelly were doing the same. Heidi Raepuro had been a last-minute addition to their apartment. A friend of a friend of a friend, qualified mostly by the fact Heidi was willing to pay extra for her own bedroom, and Sarah, Christy, and Kelly, who'd known one another since fresh­ man year, had really wanted the three-bedroom unit. Walking distance to Boston College, bay windows, hardwood floors, crown molding. When Sarah had first walked into the space, she'd felt like a grown-up. No more minifridge, no more standing-room-only dorm room. No more bare mattress shared with two younger siblings in an overcrowded slumlord's paradise.

The long nights studying when the rest of her friends had been out partying or repeating their parents' drug-fueled mistakes had finally paid off.

Which was the other reason she'd fallen in love with the brightly lit apartment. Because after spending her entire childhood sharing, shar­ing, sharing, this place offered her the greatest luxury imaginable: her own room. Granted, it was barely the size of a twin mattress, more a closet than a bedroom, most likely converted by an enterprising landlord looking to charge a three-bedroom price for what was orig­inally a two-bedroom unit, but Sarah didn't care. Tiny fit her budget. And with Christy and Kelly able to split the largest room, and silly, vapid Heidi cashing out the other main sleeping space, every­ one was happy. Especially Sarah, ensconced in her minuscule slice of paradise.

Except for nights like tonight.

More crashing-then moaning. Good God, didn't Heidi ever get enough?

A curious scrape.

"Hey now." Heidi's voice, hiccupping slightly as she panted from exertion.

Sarah rolled her eyes, pulled the pillow tighter around her ears. "Wait . .. I don't want ... No!”

Sarah sat up just as Heidi screamed. Loud, pitching, and ...

Do screams have a taste? Fire? Ash? Red-hot cinnamon candies, which as a little girl Sarah liked to let melt on the tip of her tongue?

Or is it more that screams have a color? Green and gold giggles, purple and blue cackles, or this? Molten white. Melt-your-eyeballs, singe-the-hair-on-your-arms, bright, bright, white? A color too bril­liant for nature, searing straight to the core.

That's what Heidi screamed. Molten white.

It pierced the thin walls, threatened to blow out the windows. It jolted Sarah, sitting bolt upright.

And completely, totally, unable to move.

This was the part she still didn't remember well. Not even a year later. The police asked her about the details, of course. Detectives, a forensic nurse, later more investigators, crime scene specialists.

All she could tell them was that the night started with green and gold giggles and ended with molten-white screams. Heidi's the whit­est and brightest but also blessedly short.

Christy and Kelly. Two girls in one room. Best friends, members of the lacrosse team. Forewarned, forearmed, they fought. They hurled trophies. Was the sound of crashing metal a taste or a color? No, just a crash. Followed by screams, all kinds of colors and flavors. Fear, rage, anguish. Determination as one nailed him with a lacrosse stick. Horror as he came back with his blade.

He got Kelly right in the gut (Sarah read the report later), but Kelly got him by the ankles. She rolled herself into him, around him, a human armadillo. And he slashed and he slashed, glancing blows off her ribs, which allowed Christy time to grab the comforter from the lower bunk bed and to throw it at him, tangle up his arms.

"Sarah!" they were screaming. "Help, Sarah! Nine-one-one, nine­ one-one!"

Sarah called. Another one of those things she didn't remember, but later she listened to it at her own request. A recording of her voice, trembling, barely a whisper, as she reached the dispatch center: "Help us, please help us, he's killing them. He's going to kill us all."

She left her room. It had to be done. In her tiny room, she'd be trapped, the proverbial fish in a barrel. She had to get out to open ground.

To protect herself?

To save her roommates?

She didn't know. A question to ask herself during all the sleepless nights to come.

She left her room.

She went toward her roommates' bedroom. She saw an open hand through the doorway, Kelly's splayed fingers, and without thinking Sarah grabbed it. Was she going to pull her roommate to safety? Man up and carry each and every one of them out to the hall? No time to think. Just do. So she grabbed Kelly's hand and pulled hard.

And found herself holding an arm. Just ... an arm.

Because, apparently, when a girl armadilloed herself around a mad­ man's ankles, sooner or later he got tired of slashing his victim and simply dismantled her instead.

Screams ahead of her, Christy, still fighting. Followed by a plea behind her.

"Sarah ... "

She didn't know which way to turn. These sounds, these sights, this night, it didn't register for her. Couldn't.

Slowly she twisted toward the voice behind her, holding Kelly's warm, wet arm tight against her chest. She found herself face-to-face with Heidi. The girl had crawled from her bedroom. The skin of her naked shoulders appeared silver in the glow of lights through the win­dows. Unmarred, untouched. But the blonde was hunched forward awkwardly, cradling her stomach, and already Sarah could pick up the whiff of perforated bowels.

More screaming from the bedroom. Not molten white. Lava red. Pure rage from a star athlete refusing to be cut down in the prime of her life.

And Sarah knew then what she had to do. She turned away from beautiful, stupid, gutted Heidi. She tightened her grip on poor Kelly's arm, and she joined the fray.

Christy, backed into a corner against the bunk bed, armed with her lacrosse stick. Madman, freed from the comforter, dancing around the body splayed at his feet, enjoying himself, taking his time.

"Excuse me," Sarah said.

He darted toward Christy. She swung her stick down. Last min ute, he twirled left, jabbed the blade into the soft spot beneath her ribs. A wet, squishing sound, followed by Christy's hollow grunt. She jerked the stick back, tapped him on the side of his head. Not hard, but he retreated.

No screaming now. Just the sound of exertion. Everyone breath­ing hard.

"Excuse me," Sarah said again.

For the first time, the blade man stilled. He turned slightly, a frown on his blood-flecked face. Sarah stared at him. She felt as if she needed to see him. Needed to register him. Or none of this could be real. Es­pecially not this moment, when she held out her hands and offered her friend's severed arm to the man who'd murdered her.

Dark hair. High cheekbones. Sculpted face. Exactly the kind of guy Heidi would bring home from a bar. Exactly the kind of guy who would forever be out of Sarah's league.

"You forgot this," she said, still holding out the arm. ("What?" the first officer had interrupted. "You said what?"

"I had to." Sarah tried explaining to the woman.

Except maybe there was no explaining such a thing. She'd just known she had to do something. Stop him. Interrupt. Make all those red and white screams go away. So she'd walked into the room, and she'd offered up the only thing she had: Kelly's bloody arm.)

He came for her then. Turned fully, blade dripping at his side, lips peeled back from his teeth.

She watched him advance. She didn't move. She didn't scream. She felt like a little girl, standing in the kitchen as her father picked up the boiling teakettle. "What the fuck, you stupid-ass woman? When I ask you for my money, you give me my money! I'm the one in charge here. Now do as I say, or I’ll throw this whole damn pot into your bitch‑ugly face. Then we’ll see who’s willing to take care of you after that!”

Don’t look away, don’t make a sound. This is what she’d learned from her mother over the years. If they’re going to hurt you, make them do it while staring you in the eye.

Madman halted directly in front of her, blade at his side. She could smell the blood on his cheeks, the whiskey on his breath.

He said to her: “Scream.”

As slowly, so slowly, he lifted the knife. Up, up, up.

Behind him, Christy fumbled with her lacrosse stick. Tried to move. Tried to take advantage. But the stick fell from her trembling fingers. It clattered as she slid down the wall, sank to the floor. A sigh in the distance: no more rage from the star athlete, just acceptance. So this is what it felt like to die.

“Scream,” he whispered again.

Sarah stared at him, and in his gaze, she knew exactly what he was going to do. He was not her loser father. Not subject to a quick temper or drunken rages. No, the hunting knife in his hand, the blood on his face. He liked it. Felt no shame, no remorse. Heidi’s screams, Christy’s fight, her own silent stand—this was the most fun he’d had in years.

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” sheheard herself whisper, “I will fear no evil.”

Then she closed her eyes and clutched this last piece of Kelly close, as with a laugh, a chortle of glee, he slashed the knife straight down toward her chest.

An explosion. Two, three, four, five. More pain, her shoulder, her chest, her throat. He’d stabbed her, she thought, as she collapsed to the ground. No, he’d shot her. But that didn’t make sense . . .

A ragged sob behind her, followed by the stench of death growing ever closer. Heidi dragged herself across the hardwood floor.

Holding a small pistol, Sarah noticed now. Heidi had a gun.

“I’m sorry,” Heidi whispered. She was crying, tears mixing, smearing with the blood on her cheeks. “Never . . . shoulda . . .”

“Shhh,” Sarah said.

Heidi put her head on Sarah’s shoulder. Sarah winced; Heidi had shot her while shooting him. But it hardly seemed to matter now. Blood pooling on her throat, blood dripping from her back, so much pain, and yet it seemed far away, abstract.

The madman was still. The molten screams had ended. Now, there was just this. A final moment.

Sarah and Heidi both placed their hands on Kelly’s arm. “I’m sorry,” Heidi mumbled again.

As Sarah listened to her last gurgling breath.

“I will fear no evil,” she whispered in the ensuing silence. “I will fear no evil, fear no evil, fear no evil.”

The police finally burst through the front door. The EMTs rushed to their rescue.

“Jesus Christ,” the first cop said, coming to a halt in the middle of the apartment.

“I will fear no evil,” Sarah told the woman. And, once more, offered up Kelly’s severed arm.

A year later, what she remembered most was waking up to the sound of giggling.

DO SCREAMS HAVE A TASTE? Fire? Ash? Red-hot cinnamon candies, which as a little girl Sarah liked to let melt on the tip of her tongue?

“EXCUSE ME. YOU FORGOT THIS.”

SOUND OF GIGGLING. MOLTEN-WHITE screams.

I WILL FEAR NO EVIL…

ONE YEAR LATER, ONE YEAR later, one year later . ..

A KNOCK AT THE DOOR. Hard. And then again.

Sarah bolted awake in her tiny studio apartment. Drenched in sweat, breath ragged. She lay perfectly still, ears straining. Then it came again. Knocking. Pounding. Someone demanding entrance.

Slowly, she reached for the top drawer of her nightstand. No stashed knife. She couldn't even look at a blade. No gun. She'd tried, but her hands shook too much. So a canister of pepper spray. Meant to chase off bears when hiking in the woods and available at any outdoor gear or camping store. She had the canisters stashed all over her single-room apartment, in every bag she carried.

She drew out the canister, sliding off the mattress as the knocking started again.

She stank. Could smell the reek of her own sweat and terror. Night after night after night.

Screams did have a color. It was the only thing she truly understood anymore. Screams had a color, and she was now intimately familiar with all the shades of despair.

"I will fear no evil," Sarah told herself as she put her eye to the peep­ hole and gazed into the dimly lit hall.

A lone woman. Late twenties, early thirties maybe. Dressed casually in jeans and a sweatshirt, she looked like someone Sarah should know. Had maybe met once upon a time. Then again, two A.M. was a strange time for a social call.

"It's okay," the woman spoke up, no doubt sensing Sarah's gaze on her. She held up both hands, as if to prove she was unarmed. "I won't hurt you."

"Who are you?"

"Honestly? You're gonna have to open up to find out. That's part of the deal. I'm here to help you, but you gotta take the first step."

"I will fear no evil," Sarah said, clutching her bear spray tightly.

"That's stupid," said the woman. "World is full of evil. Fear is what keeps us safe."

"Who are you?"

"Someone who's not going to stand here forever. Make your choice, Sarah. Hide behind platitudes or make the world a better place."

Sarah hesitated. But then, her fingers landed on the first bolt lock. Then the second. The third. There was something about this woman. Not what she said so much as the way she stood.

Christy, she found herself thinking. The woman stood like Christy had, once upon a time. A challenger, ready to take on the world.

Slowly, very slowly, Sarah eased open the door until she stood face-to-face with her unexpected guest.

"Nice pepper spray," the woman commented. She strode into Sar­ah's tiny apartment. Rotated a full circle, looking all around. Nodded once to herself, as if all was what she expected.

She turned, faced Sarah directly, and stuck out a hand.

"My name is Flora Dane," she announced. "A year ago, you sur­vived. Now I'm gonna teach you how to live again."

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Look for Me"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Lisa Gardner.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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