From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner comes a harrowing new thriller: Frankie Elkin is an expert at finding the missing persons that the rest of the world has forgotten, but even she couldn’t have anticipated this latest request—to locate the long-lost sister of a female serial killer facing execution in three weeks’ time.
No man truly fears a woman. Not even one who is her father’s daughter.
The case was sensational. Kaylee Pierson had confessed from the very beginning, waived all appeals. She had called herself “death,” but people called her the devil. Despite the media’s chronicling of her tragic circumstances—the childhood spent with a violent father—no one could find sympathy for “the Beautiful Butcher” who had led eighteen men home from bars before viciously slitting their throats.
Now, with only twenty-one days left to live, Pierson has finally received a lead on the whereabouts of the sister who was kidnapped over a decade ago, and she needs Frankie’s help to find her. The Beautiful Butcher’s offer:
When was the last time your search ended with finding the living?
Unable to resist the chance for a rescue, Frankie takes on Pierson’s request. Twelve years ago, five-year old Leilani went missing in Hawaii. The main suspect? Pierson’s tech mogul ex-boyfriend, Sanders MacManus. Now, on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific—the site of MacManus’s latest vanity project—fresh evidence has appeared. In order to learn the truth and possibly save a young woman’s life, Frankie must go undercover at the isolated base camp. Her challenge: A dozen strangers. Countless dangerous secrets. Zero means of calling for help. And then the storm rolls in…
The series
Some investigators chase headlines. Others chase justice. The woman at the heart of the Frankie Elkin novels chases the forgotten.
Read full series description
In a genre crowded with elite profilers and hardened detectives, this series carves out something more intimate and unsettling. Created by Lisa Gardner, these psychological thrillers follow a lone drifter who travels from city to city with no badge, no official authority, and no safety net. Her focus is singular: cold missing persons cases that law enforcement has set aside and families are too exhausted to keep pushing.
What makes these crime novels linger is not just the mystery, but the atmosphere. Each story drops its heroine into a sharply drawn environment, from tightly packed urban neighborhoods humming with unspoken tensions to vast wilderness landscapes where silence can swallow a person whole. The settings are not backdrops, they are active forces, shaping danger and deepening isolation. The suspense builds slowly, through conversations in dim kitchens, uneasy alliances with locals, and the steady accumulation of small, telling details.
At the center stands a recovering alcoholic whose own history of loss and regret fuels her relentless empathy. Addiction recovery and personal redemption thread quietly through the narrative, adding emotional stakes to every investigation. She understands what it means to disappear without physically vanishing, and that insight becomes her greatest investigative tool. Instead of high-tech surveillance or dramatic shootouts, these mysteries unfold through patience, observation, and the fragile trust she builds with grieving families.
The series has resonated widely with readers of psychological suspense and character-driven crime fiction, earning bestseller status and drawing praise for its raw portrayal of trauma and resilience. Yet its power lies less in accolades and more in its human scale. The tension feels grounded, the grief authentic, the hope hard-won.
For those searching for gripping missing persons thrillers, strong female protagonists, and dark, atmospheric storytelling that explores the emotional cost of loss, this series offers a haunting journey. Each case stands alone, yet together they form a portrait of a woman who refuses to let the world forget its lost, even when the world would prefer to move on.
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