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  • Before She Disappeared

  • A Novel (A Frankie Elkin Novel, Book 1)
  • Written by: Lisa Gardner
  • Narrated by: Hillary Huber
  • Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (492 ratings)

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Before She Disappeared cover art

Before She Disappeared

Written by: Lisa Gardner
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
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Publisher's Summary

2022 Audie Award Finalist for Best Female Narrator

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a propulsive thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgotten

Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will--searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.

A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim's wary family tells Frankie she's on her own--and she soon learns she's asking questions someone doesn't want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

©2021 Lisa Gardner. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

What the critics say

"Prolific, award-winning narrator [Hillary] Huber delivers a gripping performance that draws listeners in quickly and holds on tightly in the first standalone from Gardner in nearly two decades.… Huber’s sardonic tones bring Frankie’s sarcastic and sharp character to life in an engaging way, setting this crime novel apart from similar titles in the genre." (Booklist)

“Narrator Hillary Huber's wry intonation perfectly matches the personality of loner amateur detective Frankie Elkin.… Huber's pace quickens as Frankie races to make Angelique the fifteenth girl she recovers, and, she hopes, the first one to be found alive.” (AudioFile Magazine)

“Fans of this incredible author, police procedurals, timely immigrant stories, strong determined women, and tales that are not tied up with a pretty bow at the end will not be able to get enough of this intense page-turner.” (Library Journal, starred review) 

What listeners say about Before She Disappeared

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story!

So far this is my favourite Lisa Gardner book. The flaws of the main character and her search for atonement was realistic and someone you want to root for.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good read!

A very Good book a very interesting history that jeep you engage all the time

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An excellent mystery!

What a great story! Love the main character and the plausible story line. Narration was also very good.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

Enjoyable and bring you along the discoveries. Has you involved in the story trying to figure it out with the characters.

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1 person found this helpful

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  • KLM
  • 2022-12-05

Excellent story!

I was surprised how good this book was. Kept my interest and surprised me along the way!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, didn’t love the narration

The narrator sounds a bit like a computer, but eventually you get used to it. Perhaps, it was the authors intention, but the narrators voice makes the main character appear harsher and less likeable in my opinion. Additionally the voices for the men and teens are even less appealing, and enjoyable.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A “No” to any future Hillary Huber narrations

The story wasn’t bad but the slow droning of the narrator caused me to stop and put this aside numerous times. I’ll need to avoid this narrator in the future.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Terrible Narration.

I simply could not finish this book - barely started - the narrator was awful, lisp and/or nasal tone. This is the first of Lisa Gardners books that I have heard with this narrator and won’t be getting another with same narrator.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • DGA
  • 2021-01-27

Liked the characters

As with all Lisa Gardner's books, I really like the characters but with this novel, the plot had some pretty implausible twists and turns that made the book good, but not great. Still it was an enjoyable read/listen. Not as crazy about the narrator as those that worked on her more recent books.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great story - Narrator not the best

Great story with lots of twists and turns. The narrator made this book hard to listen to however. Very blah sounding and had a weird tone at the end of every sentence that got very annoying after a while. I will avoid this narrator in the future.

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  • shelley
  • 2021-01-20

One of my favorite authors...

Lisa Gardner’s newest protagonist is a flawed heroine. She’s an alcoholic on a mission. She’s good at what she does. Her name is Frankie Elkin and she finds lost and missing people who are in a minority. The ones that get the least attention from law enforcement. The cases that are cold.

Frankie find a case of a missing Haitian girl in Boston. At first the police want nothing to do with her. Eventually she gets them to warm to her but not necessarily the rough neighborhood the girl is from. When she first goes to the family’s home she is shot at. How can she help them is she can’t get near them?

My only question is does this signal the end of the DD Warren series?
Hilary Huber does an outstanding job narrating.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
If you found this review helpful please indicate so.
Thank You.

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339 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Jacqueline Desperoux
  • 2021-02-04

The performance is horrible

I’m about a quarter through this book, and while the story is engaging, I can’t get past the the voice actors doing the dialogue, or the dialogue itself. If you are going to write stories that center on black people, please hire black actors and black people for support. As a Haitian woman, the voices, the assumptions are incredibly inauthentic and take away from the experience.

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129 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Gayle
  • 2021-02-04

Excessive unneccesary use of the F word

What’s up with the foul vulgar language half way through the story line. I finally stopped listening and will get a credit back.

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96 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • TERRYFL
  • 2021-01-21

This was a perfect book for me!

After watching The Keepers on Netflix, I wanted to attempt solving a cold case. I lived vicariously through Frankie. She is recovering alcoholic and her honesty admitting her weaknesses is refreshing. She does not think she is a savior.

The talented narrator was perfect..

Hopefully this is going to continue as a series.

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75 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Autumn M.
  • 2021-01-26

Always love LG but...

Lisa Gardner is my favorite author. If you have never read any of her books, do not start with this one, even though it is a stand alone. It was a good book, but it was not as good as most of her other books.

I thought this book was kind of slow and lacked the page turning, sleepless night of the previous books. HOWEVER, I do not regret purchasing it or listening to it. The story was engaging and I loved the character development.

I will continue to look for more books by LG, because she is the BEST!

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2021-02-01

Horribly written book read by a truly horrible narrator

This is probably one of the worst books I’ve ever encountered. The plot was terrible, the dialogue painful. While I understand this is a fictional book, it lacked any type of creativity and the entirety of it was so unrealistic and poorly written that it was painful. It’s a poor man’s version of a Janet Evanovich book.

I was surprised to find that the narrator, Hillary Huber, has narrated so many books. Her monotone voice sounds eerily similar to Siri. And hearing her do the voices of the characters in this book make me cringe. I recommend this book to no one. Don’t waste your time or money. It’s horrific.

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44 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Susan 🎧Audible-a-holic🎧 Crowe
  • 2021-01-24

OMG!!!!

This book is fantastic!!!
I loved every single minute of it!!
I've always been a huge fan of Lisa Gardner, so i wasn't surprised that it's so good but it's way beyond what i expected.

Narration:
I must be honest, I've never been a Hillary Huber fan. She wasn't a deal breaker. i could tolerate her but she wasn't a favorite. But SHE IS Frankie Elkin. She is absolutely wonderful!

DId i mention that I LOVED THIS BOOK!!?? Please let this turn into a series! i want more of Frankie and the Detective!!

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35 people found this helpful

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  • LFchicago
  • 2021-01-29

Not a fan

I have read ALL of Lisa’s books and loved all of them.... except this one.

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26 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Becky
  • 2021-01-27

Not one of her best books.

I considered returning it but ended up finishing it. The plot and characters seemed weak. The end was dissapointing.

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20 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Opal
  • 2021-02-02

Just ok

The narrator is was lackluster. The story was just ok. The main character was unusual and a little annoying. I would pass on this Lisa
Gardner book. Sorry

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19 people found this helpful