A Map of the Dark
The Searchers Book 1
by Karen Ellis
To save a missing girl, FBI Agent Elsa Myers may have to lose herself...
"I absolutely love when I find a new mystery series to follow and enjoy!... I just couldn't stop reading... I loved the characters and want more! 4 out of 5 stars." Booked on a Feeling
Even as her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, FBI Agent Elsa Myers can't ignore a call for help. A teenage girl has disappeared from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads obscures the fact that she did not go willingly.
As the hours tick by, and the search becomes a hunt for a man who may have been killing for years, Elsa's carefully compartmentalized world collapses around her. She finds missing people, but she knows too well how it feels to be lost. Everything she has buried--her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother's death--threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.
Can our most painful childhood secrets be forgotten? Or will they always find their way back into our adult lives? These questions lie at the heart of A Map of the Dark, a riveting portrait of a woman haunted by her family legacy, and a race-against-time thriller. Perfect for fans of Tana French, Megan Abbott, and Lisa Gardner.
Momma Says: 3 stars⭐⭐⭐
A Map of the Dark has a solid mystery at its core, one that has the potential to be both gripping and chilling. At times it is exactly that, but for much of the book, it gets lost in Elsa's story. Don't get me wrong, her backstory is an interesting one in its own right, but I felt like the author was unsure of the direction this book wanted to take. I enjoy getting to know the characters, particularly if they are going to be main players in a series, but I really wanted more of the case in this one. I did like that Elsa is far from perfect, she works hard to keep her past and her flaws hidden, but they come through little by little. Her partner for this case, Lex, was likable and became even more so by book's end. There is an interesting twist at the end, one that I saw coming, but the surprise for me was a particular character's reaction to that twist. In the end, I felt like this one had some unrealized potential, but it was worth the read, and I'll be interested to see where this series goes from here.
❃❃ARC provided by NetGalley and Mulholland Books
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