I struggled with this book a lot more than I wanted to. I enjoy Lisa Gardner's books for the entertainment they bring me and how easily they read. It makes them an overall enjoyable time, even if I'm not always in love with the stories. Her writing style is a pleasure.

But the first 150 (or so) pages dragged. First there was the typical introduction of all the characters. With three returning POV characters from different books (plus a new character makes 4 POVs overall), there was about thirty pages of catch up in case the reader hasn't read the prior books with important information. I understand that. As the title above suggests, this book is number 20 in the overall universe Gardner has created. But after the introduction, there was about a hundred pages of setting up this story. They have to fly down to Atlanta from Boston, they have to set up a search party, they have to have numerous meetings of law enforcement sitting around discussing what's happening. It was so boring that I may have DNFed this book if I was someone who DNFed books.

I don't want to hear about what's happening in any story, especially a thriller. I want to see what's happening. The planning stages are boring. Realistically boring, maybe, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable to read. A hundred pages of characters talking about what's going on and not doing anything almost made me rate this book two stars.

But it got better. Around 150 pages it stopped dragging so much and fell into Gardner's typical easy flow. I'd meant to go to bed the night I read this, but instead just stayed up until I finished the book. I didn't love the rest of it, but I love the way she writes and tells a story. I can fly through 50 pages without realizing any time has passed. That's why I keep coming back to her books when so many of them are three stars for me.

This book was incredibly unrealistic. I usually give thrillers a fair amount of leniency when it comes to that because fun is more important than realism for me in this genre, but by the end it was grating just how unrealistic it was. A lot of the factors I don't want to discuss in detail because spoilers, but just the fact that Flora Dane was brought in on this case was a little painful. Not only is she a civilian, but they're investigating the murder thinking it was committed by the same man who kidnapped her, the same man she killed. There's no way she'd be officially involved. I can kind of accept her inserting herself on the case as unrealistic but fun, but it was a little painful that she was literally there in an official capacity. And there were a dozen other complaints in this vein, but they were mostly spoilers and I don't want to ruin anyone else's fun.

I also found this very predictable. The big plot twists at the end I guessed as soon as they were foreshadowed. I felt it was kind of an obvious story. Which isn't the worst thing in the world. I was still down, but it just felt so obvious that it sucked out some enjoyment.

One thing that did bug me a lot is I think thrillers are best when they have a smaller scope. They hit me a lot harder that way, when they're searching for one person, maybe two. When the crimes are a bit more limited (though no less horrific). This book had a very wide scope with a lot of moving parts (this is about as specific as I can be without spoilers), and I think it was to the book's detriment. It also made it less believable for me.

My final negative is just that I think the character of Flora Dane is overused by this point. I think she's running out of things for this character to do and has to keep expanding the background of Flora's kidnapping. In the first book he was a lone kidnapper who had occasional friends, and that background keeps growing to make him part of various conspiracies and crime groups. Every time we learn more, I start to care a little less. It doesn't make sense. It feels like she's just adding more to have more things for the cops to uncover. Also, just in general it feels like Flora Dane isn't fitting in as part of the team as naturally as she has in prior books. It feels like she's just there because she's a popular character rather than because Gardner has a plan for her future.

Definitely don't start with this book if you're new to Gardner, though. It's not fun to have your first experience with an author be 150 pages of boredom, and she's better than that. Also, this is the fourth book that follows Flora Dane and I think it's much more enjoyable to go in knowing her past in more detail, which was discussed in Find Her. You could just pick this one up and the introduction will summarize everything, but I think you'll miss out on a fair bit.

Overall, glad I read it. Not the best, not the worst, but I'll definitely continue reading Gardner's new releases each year. She writes fun thrillers, even with their flaws. If you enjoy cop thrillers, I definitely recommend picking up some of her books.