Frankie Elkin

Created by Lisa Gardner
Pseudinyms include Alicia Scott
(1972–)

“In my line of work — which isn’t exactly a real job if you consider I have no training and receive no pay — I normally choose my cases. I can’t always explain why this missing person cold case versus that one… I mostly gravitate to  underserved minorities, the kind of people who were overlooked in life and garner no consideration after they vanish.”
— Still See You Everywhere

So… if a private eye doesn’t charge a fee, are they a private eye at all? Or just a pushyamateur sleuth?

At least Jeffrey dealers’s Colter Shaw tries to finangle a fee as he patrols the country in his battered Winnebago (on TV, it’s a luxe, high-tech Airstream trailer), on the hunt for missing folks and huge fees.

Not so Lisa Gardner’s forty-something FRANKIE ELKIN who skips around the country in her dusty shoes, ragged jeans and a frayed olive-green army jacket, traveling by bus and working out of a suitcase, offering her services pro bono, searching for missing people everyone else has mostly stopped looking for. Missing persons cold cases, if you will.

By Hern own admission, she’s nothing special. “An average, middle-aged white woman,” she admits.

Of course, Frankie has her issues. They’re pretty much de riguer for sleuths these days, ya know? In Frankie case, it’s a busted relationship in the past, and  alcoholism —but she’s recovering. And, we’re told, she has “short on belongings, long on regrets.”

Also… more dream sequences than I’d like. But maybe that’s just me.

Originally touted (and highly lauded) as a standalone, Frankie has appeared in several sequels…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lisa Gardner is the  bestselling author of over twenty suspense novels, published in more than 30 countries. This includes The Neighbor (2009),  which won Thriller of the Year from the International Thriller Writers. She writes several series, both under her own name and romantic suspense novels as Alicia Scott. TV and movie credits include At the Midnight House (CBS), Instinct to Kill, The Survivors Club (CBS), and Hide (TNT) as well as personal appearances on TruTV’s Murder by the Book and CNN. An avid hiker, traveler, and formidable cribbage player, she lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with her family.

UNDER OATH

• “In this rare standalone, the prolific Gardner has come up with one of the most original characters in recent crime fiction, a woman readers can care about even while not being entirely sure of what to make of her.”
  — Washington Post on Before She Disappeared
• “This book, the best-selling author’s first stand-alone novel in 20-years, is a sharply-written, tension-filled yarn full of twists readers are unlikely to see coming. The most compelling element, however, is the character of Frankie, a recovering alcoholic whose obsession with the missing is a penance of sorts for the burden of guilt and grief she carries over a past trauma that took the life of a man she loves.”
  — Associated Press on Before She Disappeared
• “Tense and immersive, Gardner’s latest…is a sure bet both for readers drawn to gritty gumshoe fiction and for the growing legion of true- crime podcast fans.”
  — Booklist (starred review) onBefore She Disappeared
• “Gardner is a pro at writing tough-as-nails, wiseass, broken-yet-steely female characters, and Frankie does not disappoint…Fans of Gardner’s Tessa Leoni, D.D. Warren, and Flora Dane will embrace her new heroine’s grit and empathy.”
  — Kirkus Reviews onBefore She Disappeared
• “And Then There Were None meets Deliverance. Gardner’s latest will have you flipping pages at breakneck speed, guessing and gasping.”
  —Linwood Barclay on One Step Too Far

NOVELS

• Before She Disappeared (2012) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• One Step Too Far (2022) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Still See You Everywhere | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Kiss Her Goodbye (2025) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.