In Still See You Everywhere, the third installment of Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series, we follow our protagonist to a remote atoll in the middle of the Pacific in her efforts to find the younger sister of serial killer Kaylee “Keahi” Pierson dubbed by the media as the “Beautiful Butcher” and guilty of eighteen proven murders.

Over twelve years ago, after a particularly violent episode involving her wealthy, influential and abusive boyfriend Sanders “Mac” MacManus left Keahi hospitalized, her younger sister Leilani “Lea” then only five years old, disappeared without a trace. When Keahi receives a letter she believes was written by Lea, she has reason to believe that Mac has been holding Lea against her will. Barely three weeks before her scheduled execution Keahi, who has had a tragic and violent past but shows no remorse for her actions, asks Frankie to save Lea, who she believes will be accompanying Mac to an isolated Hawaiian island, the site for his latest business venture. Aided by Keahi’s lawyer, Frankie secures employment on the isolated island. Surrounded by dangers- both natural and man-made- with limited outside communication and among strangers, some of whom are harboring their own secrets, Frankie just might be out of her depth.

Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner is an immersive, suspenseful thriller with plenty of twists and turns that keeps you hooked until the very last page. I was drawn to the premise of the novel and loved the setting. After an intriguing start, the novel slows down considerably as we meet the characters and are treated to a detailed description of the island’s flora and fauna before picking up again for an action-packed finale. Despite some minor repetition and pacing issues, there were enough surprises and red herrings along the way. I should mention that a few of the twists, though shocking, weren’t quite convincing. I don’t mind suspension of disbelief, but a few of the revelations bordered on absurd. I’ve enjoyed the previous books in the series and I do find the protagonist interesting, but I was disappointed with the lack of character development. I thought Frankie spent too much time brooding over her troubled past, wallowing in self-pity and lacked the sharpness that defined her character in the previous books.

Overall, despite the intriguing premise and atmospheric setting, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous installments but do look forward to reading more from Lisa Gardner in the future and will be eagerly awaiting the next book in the series! ( )

Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner
Frankie Elkin series #3. Thriller, mystery. Can be read as a stand-alone bit better as part of the series to get to know Frankie.
Frankie Elkin has made her life all about finding missing people. In particular, those that have been gone for a long time, or that the world simply doesn’t care about anymore. She has worked in urban jungles, small towns, national forests, and more. She moves from place to place deciding on which case to take next.
Frankie travels to a remote Hawaiian island, isolated and sparse, to find a long-lost sister of a female serial killer. Not many people would be willing to help, but Frankie finds something intriguing in case of the then five-year old Leilani. No phone service. An incoming storm. And then the first body is found.

Yikes. Wasn’t sure Frankie was going to make it out alive. I thought the national forest case was intense. You can’t walk off an island in the middle of the pacific. ( )

Enjoyed the main character and the mystery of the story line. ( )

Frankie Elkin, the ordinary but strong woman with a troubled past and a mission to locate missing persons, was introduced by bestselling author Lisa Gardner in Before She Disappeared. She joined a search party looking for a long-lost hiker in One Step Too Far. Gardner did not set out to write a series centered around Frankie and, in fact, approaches penning every book as though it is a stand-alone story, so readers can enjoy them as such.

The character of Frankie was inspired by an article Gardner happened upon about Lissa Yellowbird-Chase, a woman who gave up everything in order to pursue cold cases because she was so troubled by the knowledge that too many missing children of color are forgotten, the mysteries surrounding their disappearances never solved. Gardner found Yellowbird-Chase’s commitment “a bit mesmerizing” and wondered, “What would that look like?” She decided to explore that question via Frankie’s fictional journeys.

In late 2021, after thirty years of drafting bestselling novels, Gardner took a one-year sabbatical to “explore the world.” During that year, she did not write at all. Instead, she traversed the globe from Antarctica “to a crab-covered atoll near the equator, to the polar bear-populated shores of the Arctic” and, luckily for readers, after “extraordinary adventures,” returned to her career “inspired about thirty new novels in my head.” The first to be published is Still See Her Everywhere.

Gardner says the “whole book was based on time she spent on the Palmyra,” a beautiful atoll an hour away from Hawaii,” populated by carnivorous coconut crabs with claws that operate like hydraulics and wolf spiders, both of which feature in the tale. Gardner sets the story on a similar, fictional atoll called Pomaikai which, ironically, means “good fortune, blessed, fortunate.” It’s a so-far unspoiled paradise a one-hour flight away from Honolulu. The trails on Pomaikai are dominated by hordes of hermit crabs. But a tech mogul is intent upon following in the footsteps of Marlon Brando, who filmed a movie on Tetiaroa in French Polynesia and loved it so much, he set out to construct the world’s first-ever eco-friendly, sustainable resort there. Indeed, the Brando Resort was completed in 2014 and named the best in the world by Conde Nast.

“Finding missing people is what I do,” Frankie explains in the first-person narrative Gardner again employs to relate the latest chapter in her adventures. “When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never bothered to care, I start looking. For no money, no recognition, and most of the time, with no help.” Frankie has no home, no belongings, no roots. She travels from place to place to pursue cases that capture her interest. She has no investigative training or law enforcement experience, but is an adept listener, observes body language and mannerisms, and relies mostly on gut instinct. Gardner describes Frankie as a fortyish woman going “all the places most of us would never go,” often searching for missing persons “on the fringe of society.” She tells herself that she is strong and can handle anything, but Gardener questions that — “Can she? Do any of us?” – so, internally, Frankie does, as well. An alcoholic struggling day-by-day to remain sober, she often seeks out Alcoholics Anonymous meetings wherever she lands, and aspects of her complicated past haunt her dreams and memories. Gardner reveals that Frankie remains traumatized by her most recent case which was the subject of One Step Too Far. It was a terrifying ordeal she barely survived, while some of her fellow searchers did not.

As the story opens, Frankie has agreed to meet with Keahi, aka Kaylee, Pierson, a thirty-two-year-old condemned serial killer incarcerated in Gatesville, Texas. She is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in the notorious Huntsville Unit, the most active execution chamber in the United States, in just three weeks. Keahi (meaning “fire”) was convicted of murder. Eighteen murders, in fact, and dubbed the “Beautiful Butcher” because she dismembered her victims and fed their remains to her pigs. She is unrepentant. She has never denied committing the crimes for which she stood trial and has rejected all efforts to have her conviction or sentence overturned. She has made clear that she is guilty and ready to die.

During their meeting, Keahi explains her childhood with a father who was “a monster” and how she served as her younger sister Leilani’s protector. She details how the two of them escaped to Hawaii where they lived with their auntie for two years during which Keahi told everyone that Leilani, aka Lea, just three years old, was her daughter. When she fell in love with tech mogul Sanders “Mac” McManus, they went to live in his villa with him, but like their father, he proved to be abusive. After a particularly violent incident, Mac spirited Lea away while Keahi was hospitalized, recovering from the injuries Mac inflicted upon her. Thereafter, she spent two years scouring Honolulu for Lea to no avail before returning to Texas and embarking on the murder spree that ultimately landed her in prison.

Keahi claims that she recently received a handwritten letter from Lea, now seventeen years old, confirming that she has been with Mac since that horrid night . . . and fears him. Lea allegedly wrote that she remembers and will always miss Keahi. She insists she has not notified authorities because she believes they will not pursue this new evidence of Lea’s whereabouts since it is a cold case involving a powerful man with “a net worth greater than most developed countries.” Hawaii is an infamous sex trafficking hub, but resources are rarely expended searching for missing native Hawaiian girls. Not to mention the well-documented racial bias inherent in the imposition of the death penalty.

But nothing about the case feels right to Frankie, including the highly suspicious timing of Keahi’s receipt of Lea’s letter. “I have a sick feeling in my stomach. This is not my area of expertise. I don’t like violence of blood; there’s a reason I work missing persons and not murder cases.” But the chance to save a teenage girl who was ripped away from her family twelve years ago, and possibly held against her wishes by an influential and violent man is enticing. “Finding people no one else is looking for” is what Frankie does. So she tells Keahi’s lawyer, “I’m in it for Lea, just like I’m always working for the missing.”

Keahi’s attorney arranges for Frankie to work at the base camp on Pomaikai as a combination dishwasher, laundress, and supply tech, and her next adventure begins. Gardener’s fast-paced narrative details Frankie’s flight in Mac’s private jet to the beautiful atoll and her introduction to the island. She is welcomed by fifty-something cooks Trudy and Ann, who finish each other’s sentences and explain what life on the island is like. Frankie quickly learns she will be sharing her rustic cabin with a large, but harmless wolf spider, and must traverse the island cautiously for a variety of reasons. The team includes Charlie, the cantankerous and mysterious head engineer with an inconsistent accent; Ronin, the archeologist employed by the State of Hawai’i to scan for signs of previous Polynesian civilization and artifacts that must be protected and preserved; Emi, an ornithologist; Aolani, Mac’s architect, for whom the project represents an opportunity to make a name for herself; and the project manager, Vaughn, who has long been a friend and associate of Mac. Vaughn is a no-nonsense leader committing to the group’s safety who is immediately suspicious of Frankie because of the manner in which she was hired. “Our safety depends on one another. Which means we don’t screw around and we don’t lie,” he tells her.

Frankie is, of course, suspicious of the entire crew and immediately begins gathering as much information as she can about them, the island itself, and Mac, who maintains a residence on the island that is far more luxurious than the crew accommodations. He is expected to arrive soon with his ward – Lea! So Frankie’s search efforts must be both covert and swift.

Nothing is as it initially seemed. Frankie quickly discovers clues that bring Keahi’s story into question, leading her to ponder whether she has been lured to the island under false pretenses. If so, for what purpose? Can she trust any of her fellow employees? The discovery of a female body and acts of sabotage enhance the danger. Matters grow increasingly dire, as more and more surprising truths come to light and Frankie understands precisely why she was enlisted to conduct the investigation. Frankie also recognizes that she must trust some of her teammates – her survival, as well as theirs, depends on working with, rather than against them if they are to escape the island. But who can she rely on? Frankie learns about the other employees’ pasts and possible motivations for their presence on the island. There is definitely at least one traitor among them . . . and perhaps others are on the way. Just when it seems the situation could not be worse, another threat materializes. A tropical storm is set to wreak even more havoc on the island and further jeopardize the group’s safety.

Unlike the first two installments in the series, the story is more focused on Frankie’s search for Lea and the dangers she confronts. Gardner still examines her history and emotional struggles, though. She still thinks about Paul and a certain detective back in Boston, but the trauma she experienced in Wyoming is a fresher psychic wound. “I mourn a man in Wyoming,” she adds to her list of burdens. Frankie will never stop longing for the idea of love and security. But she knows herself well and is resigned to the fact that she is simply not cut out to lead a conventional life. The temptation to drink never fully abates. And she is exhausted. “I don’t recognize the person I see peering back at me from the mirror. Who is this too-thin woman with her hollowed-out cheeks, bruised eyes, and creased forehead?”

Once again, Frankie is surrounded by an eclectic cast of supporting characters which includes the setting – Pomaikai – to an even greater degree than the previous volumes in the series. Gardner incorporates details from her stay on Palmyra that bring the fictional atoll to life. She deftly contrasts the lush beauty of the isolated paradise with the myriad terror-inducing hazards that lurk there, both natural and human. Gardner’s narrative is propulsive, relentlessly tense, replete with shocking revelations and plot twists, and exciting. The story is both cleverly imagined and flawlessly rendered, another skillful blend of intrigue, unpredictability, and compassion. Frankie is an endlessly fascinating and empathetic character – a determined, tenacious woman who grapples daily with addiction, grief, guilt, and longings she knows will never be fulfilled or fulfilling.

The only disappointing aspect of Still See You Everywhere is how quickly readers will devour the story, leaving them anxiously waiting to read about Frankie’s next case.

Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic Advance Reader's Copy & Grand Central Publishing for a hardcover copy in conjunction with the BookSparks 2024 Spring Reading Challenge. ( )

Wow-ee! I am such a Frankie Elkin fan and in Still See You Everywhere, Lisa Gardner takes Frankie to new heights of "What the--?" Still See You Everywhere is fast-paced, action-packed, and filled with multiple characters you will love and hate.

Still See you Everywhere finds missing person specialist Frankie Elkin in a women's maximum prison with serial killer, Kaylee Pierson, otherwise known as the Beautiful Butcher, having slain 18 men. Kaylee, now with only three weeks to live, wants to find her little sister, Lea who, according to Kaylee, has been kidnapped by a billionaire and will soon be on an off-the-grid atoll outside Hawaii. Frankie is being asked to go to the atoll, somehow fit in with the crew there, find and save Lea. But upon arrival, Frankie recognizes things and people are not what they seem.

And here's where it gets good. Frankie, a recovering alcoholic, uses her sharp wit, snarky one-liners, and spot-on intuition to cull through the b.s. on the island, mostly. She also finds herself on the wrong end of a gun barrel, living with a wolf spider, and fearing coconut crabs. So who is Frankie and what makes her special? Frankie is the in-your-face, wish you could say the things she does, drifter who lives to help others find their missing loved ones. Frankie is special because Lisa Gardner writes her that way.

I have loved all of the Frankie Elkin books (my first-ever series). I had no idea I could get hooked on a character but there is so much of me I see in Frankie and so much of her I wish I were me that I feel connected. Lisa Gardner's F.E. series has converted this stand-alone reader.

Thank you, NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC. All opinions here are mine and this was an uncompensated review. ( )