Authors I've Been Meaning to Read - Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen

 

At the beginning of the year, I made a list of authors that I've been saying I need to read and commit to reading at least one book by each of the authors in 2024.  Here's my thoughts on one of those books/authors.

Goodreads:  Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen

Blurb:  The Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women, ritually binding them and leaving them for dead before penning them gruesome love letters in the local papers. Then he disappeared, and after twenty years with no trace of him, many believe that he's gone for good.
Not Grace Harper. A grocery store manager by day, at night Grace uses her snooping skills as part of an amateur sleuth group. She believes the Lovelorn Killer is still living in the same neighborhoods that he hunted in, and if she can figure out how he selected his victims, she will have the key to his identity.

Detective Annalisa Vega lost someone she loved to the killer. Now she's at a murder scene with the worst kind of déjà vu: Grace Harper lies bound and dead on the floor, surrounded by clues to the biggest murder case that Chicago homicide never solved. Annalisa has the chance to make it right and to heal her family, but first, she has to figure out what Grace knew―how to see a killer who may be standing right in front of you. This means tracing his steps back to her childhood, peering into dark corners she hadn't acknowledged before, and learning that despite everything the killer took, she has still so much more to lose.

My Thoughts:  I love a good procedural, and this author has been on my TBR for years because I had heard good things about several of her series.  The blurb of this one caught my eye and I was so excited when I saw it was the first of the Annalisa Vega series.  I really enjoyed the mystery and had no idea how everything was going to unravel until just before Annalisa did.  I liked the addition of Nick and how he and Annalisa worked together. This was a bit emotionally darker than I expected but the violence level was enough off screen that I was okay reading it - though there is nothing cozy about this one.  I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.  My Rating:  Really Liked It (4 Stars)