Series: Detective Annalisa Vega

#BookReview Dead and Gone by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #JoannaSchaffhausen #DeadandGoneBook #DetectiveAnnalisaVega #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

categories: 10/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural
#BookReview Dead and Gone by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #JoannaSchaffhausen #DeadandGoneBook #DetectiveAnnalisaVega #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: Dead and Gone

Author: Joanna Schaffhausen

Series: Detective Annalisa Vega #3

Published by: Minotaur Books on Aug. 8, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 336

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 10/10

The next installment of Joanna Schaffhausen’s critically acclaimed Detective Annalisa Vega series.

For Chicago police detective Annalisa Vega, Sam Tran’s death presents an ominous puzzle. The ex-cop turned PI is found hanging from a cemetery tree with a message across his chest that suggests someone holds a murderous grudge against the police. Annalisa suspects the real answer lies in one of Tran’s open cases. She believes he stumbled on a dark secret during his investigations and someone killed him to keep him quiet. Her own family harbors plenty of secrets, something Annalisa is reminded of when her brother turns out to be one of Sam’s last clients.

Vinny Vega hired Tran to find a dangerous stalker on his daughter’s college campus. Now Sam is dead and the stalker remains at large, with Annalisa’s niece Quinn firmly in his sights.

To protect Quinn, Annalisa begins tracing Sam’s steps back through his open cases, which include not only the campus stalker but also a brutal double homicide from twenty years ago. Did Sam finally find the killer? Did he uncover the stalker’s identity? Annalisa must figure out which secret got Sam killed, and fast, or someone else will die. Every move she makes brings her closer to the truth of Sam’s death, and closer to a murderer who will stop at nothing to remain free.

Review:

Relentless, sinister, and intricate!

Dead and Gone is an intense, unpredictable thrill ride that takes us back to Chicago, where Detective Annalisa Vega now finds herself delving into the open cases of murdered former CPD officer turned private detective Sam Tran, which include the investigation into a missing mother from the late 1980s, a man looking for justice into the slaying of his wife and her lover, and the protection of Annalisa’s own niece who seems to have become the latest object of fascination for a stalker on her college campus.

The writing is eerie and tight. The characters are diligent, attentive, and flawed. And the plot builds quickly into an ominous tale full of twists, turns, red herrings, secrets, lies, danger, obsession, violence, mayhem, and murder.

I’ve been a huge fan of Joanna Schaffhausen since I read The Vanishing Season in 2017, and whether it’s one of her Ellery Hathaway novels or another saga in the Detective Annalisa Vega series, such as this latest release, Dead and Gone, I am always riveted, entertained, satisfied and highly impressed.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joanna Schaffhausen

JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN wields a mean scalpel, skills developed in her years studying neuroscience. She has a doctorate in psychology, which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain—how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong. Previously, she worked for ABC News, writing for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and daughter. She is also the author of The Vanishing Season and No Mercy.

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#BookReview Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #JoannaSchaffhausen #GoneforGood #DetectiveAnnalisaVega #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

categories: 10/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural
#BookReview Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen @slipperywhisper @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #JoannaSchaffhausen #GoneforGood #DetectiveAnnalisaVega #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: Gone for Good

Author: Joanna Schaffhausen

Series: Detective Annalisa Vega #1

Published by: Minotaur Books on Aug. 10, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 10/10

Gone For Good is the first in a new mystery series from award-winning author Joanna Schaffhausen, featuring Detective Annalisa Vega, in which a cold case heats up.

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.

Review:

Dark, disturbing, and exceptionally entertaining!

In this latest novel by Schaffhausen, Gone for Good, we are introduced to Chicago PD Det. Annalisa Vega, a complex, tenacious young woman who finds herself investigating the death of Grace Harper, a member of a group of online amateur sleuths, whose investigation into the murder of seven women in the 1990s may have just triggered the reappearance of a serial killer from the past.

The writing is bold and tight. The characters are committed, persistent, and vulnerable. And the plot starts off with a bang and then quickly unravels into an ominous tale full of twists, turns, red herrings, secrets, lies, obsession, deception, emotion, violence, and murder.

Gone for Good is the first book in the new Detective Annalisa Vega series, and once again, Schaffhausen has written a highly suspenseful, intricately woven mystery with superb character development that gives the story a touch of human frailty and authenticity that takes it from being just a good thriller to a great one!

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joanna Schaffhausen

JOANNA SCHAFFHAUSEN wields a mean scalpel, skills developed in her years studying neuroscience. She has a doctorate in psychology, which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain—how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong. Previously, she worked for ABC News, writing for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and daughter. She is also the author of The Vanishing Season and No Mercy.

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