escape to a remote tropical island to find the missing

When Frankie Elkins is summoned to visit serial killer and death row inmate Kaylee Pierson, she is reluctant to go. It wasn’t that long ago that she was on a disastrous trip in Washington that almost killed her, and she is bone-weary. But she’s also curious. And it’s that insatiable curiosity that gets her on a bus to Texas to visit the Beautiful Butcher, the woman accused of killing eighteen men and feeding them to her pigs. Pierson didn’t fight against her death sentence, no appeals, just one last request. For Frankie, the expert at finding missing people, to find the sister she had left behind.

Lea Pearson had only been 5 when she went missing. Kaylee had left her Texas home with Lea when she was a teenager and Lea was a toddler, killing her incredibly violent father and her mother on her way out the door. She moved them to Hawaii, where they had family, so Lea could have a better life. But then Kaylee met Mac. The relationship moved quickly, and Kaylee and Lea moved in with him. When he became violent with Kaylee, she smiled and hit him back. The violence between them grew into something horrific, and when it got to the point where Lea was in danger, Kaylee decided it was time to leave. But by the time she could get to her, Mac had already disappeared her. Kaylee didn’t know where she’d gone. She searched, but there was no trace of Lea.

Defeated, Kaylee moved back to Texas, to the family farm, where she embarked on her killing spree.

Now, Mac, or as he’s usually known, tech billionaire Sanders MacManus, has bought an island near Hawaii and is in the process of turning the island into an eco-friendly luxury retreat. There is a small group of people on the island, doing ecological surveys and prepping the island for the coming construction, and Mac and Lea show up from time to time to oversee the work. That’s where Frankie is dispatched to, as prep cook, cleaner, and launderer. Kaylee’s attorney has prepared the way for her. And that’s where Frankie is supposed to find Lea, to rescue her from her kidnapper.

In Frankie’s eyes, she’s not working for Kaylee, or for the attorney. Her mission is find missing people. She works for Lea. And when she figures out that Lea is heading to the island, she uses a brief window of cell service to let the attorney know that she’s located Lea. The only response she gets is one word: sorry.

Now Frankie is trapped on a small island with a ragtag assortment of people, a couple of guns, and limited communications. A plane shows up once a week or so to bring supplies and take anyone who needs to go back to Hawaii, but otherwise, it’s just Frankie and giant crabs with hydraulic claws, an engineer with a sketchy Aussie accent, rumors of sabotage, two cooks who whip up crepes to keep spirits up, a pile of laundry, secrets, lies, angel terns, and a killer on the loose. What could possibly go wrong?

As Frankie takes on her newest missing persons case, she is already broken by her last case and doesn’t really have time to think through what she’s getting into, as Kaylee only has weeks before her execution. But author Lisa Gardner won’t let Frankie rest in Still See You Everywhere, the third book in this fascinating series about a woman obsessed with missing people. The action doesn’t let up with this book, thrilling and terrifying and amazing, with surprises at every turn.

I love Frankie Elkins, and I will go just about anywhere she goes. This trip to a tropical island so humid you take a shower and then immediately get covered in sweat trying to get dressed was fascinating. I loved learning about the birds and the crabs, but it’s Frankie and her story of continuing redemption that keeps me hanging in there with her. There was a big twist a little over halfway in that I truly did not see coming, and it changed everything in the story, making me once again question everything I thought I knew. I think that’s a specialty of Gardner’s, as I keep saying that about her books. But I won’t stop reading, because if Frankie is in, then I’m in too. I want to hear all her stories, and I can’t wait for her next adventure.

Egalleys for Still See You Everywhere were provided by Grand Central Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks.