Kiss Her Goodbye By Lisa Gardner

This read is explosive and addictive!

Favourite Quote:

Another rule I have to learn. We exist in this moment. What happened before, what will happen after, are not our chapters of the story. We must focus on this and this only. 

Book Synopsis:

Recent Afghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband seems unconcerned. Sabera’s closest friend, however, is convinced Sabera would never willingly leave her three‑year old daughter. At her insistence, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search through the broiling streets of Tucson. Just in time for a video of the young mother to surface—showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder. 

Frankie quickly realizes there’s much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. The father Isaad is a brilliant mathematician, Sabera a gifted linguist, and their little girl Zahra—she has an uncanny ability to remember anything she sees. Which given everything that has happened during the girl’s short life, may be a terrible curse. When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra’s life, Frankie realizes she must quickly crack the code of this family’s horrific past. 

Someone is coming for the Ahmadis. And violence is clearly an option. When everything is on the line, how far would you go to protect the ones you love?

Review:

Kiss Her Goodbye is the fourth in Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series about an unemployed woman with her own demons who spends her time hunting down missing people that no one else is looking for. I like the Frankie series, and I think this is one of the best! The premise is unique: it mixes a heartwrenching story about modern immigration to the US, and the devastations in Afghanistan with an eccentric millionaire who hires Frankie to feed his iguana and snakes. Filled with humour and heart, this is a must read from Lisa. 

You can read Kiss Her Goodbye without reading the other books in the series, but there will be parts of Frankie’s story which will be confusing without the backstory. Saying that, I also think this is a great book to start your journey with Frankie if you’re new to the series because it’s such a compulsively readable book. 

The book flips between the present day with Frankie’s point of view, and the past of the missing woman, Sabera’s, perspective shared in letters. We learn, through her own voice, about Sabera’s childhood and her journey to a refugee camp during the most recent fall of Afghanistan. Sabera has a lot of layers, and when she goes missing, after only recently moving to Tucson, Arizona. Nothing adds up in this case, and Frankie soon learns that there is a lot more to Sabera and her past than she has shared. 

As Frankie explores this case, she is aided by the quirky staff at the wealthy gamer’s house where she found last minute employment in Tucson. She gets room and board by feeding and caretaking an array of reptiles…. Of whom Frankie is not the fondest of. Frankie is a bold and erratic main character and she is well balanced by the secondary characters in this story. I really want to see more of them in future books! 

One area that I really loved about this story is the dive into life in Kabul before the fall of the city in 2021, and the details about the culture, food and the immigrant story that Lisa obviously did deep research on. Fair warning: this book will make you hungry! Sabera’s story is fascinating, and her journey to the US is heavy with loss and trauma. The people she meets on her path have a massive influence in her life. There are a couple of unbelievable twists at the end that helped wrap the storyline up neatly, but I enjoyed the chaos of it as part of the story. 

If you’re craving a fast-paced thriller with some depth and heart to it, then you need to pick up Kiss Her Goodbye. 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.