Frankie Elkin is trying to track down Sabera Ahmadi, an Afghan refugee who has recently arrived in America with her husband and young child. The only person who seems concerned about her whereabouts is the friend who is helping the family settle in the area. When CCTV shows Sabera leaving the scene of a brutal murder the pressure is on Frankie to find her before others do.
I've read a lot of
Lisa Gardner's books but only discovered the Frankie Elkin series last year when I read the third book in the series,
Still See You Everywhere (you can read my review
here). Having enjoyed the previous book in the series, but not the coconut crabs that are part of the story, I jumped at the chance to read book 4,
Kiss Her Goodbye. Both books can easily be read as standalone stories.
Frankie works on missing person cases, specialising in ones that others aren't interested in or have given up on. She has been persuaded to travel to Tucson, Arizona to help find a recent immigrant from Afghanistan. Sabera Ahmadi never returned from work one day and her friend knows that she wouldn't leave her young daughter behind. Frankie isn't convinced until the police suddenly become interested, believing Sabera is a suspect in a brutal double murder.
From this point on we have an intense story, very much a cat-and-mouse chase as Frankie tries to track down Sabera. Time is of the essence as other parties are also hunting for the missing woman. There is a deepening mystery around why other people are trying to find Sabera, alongside how she is involved in a double murder. Any evidence found simply throws up mixed messages.
There are some very memorable characters who certainly added to my enjoyment of the story. I didn't think it was possible for Lisa Gardner to increase the fear factor after the coconut crabs of the previous book but she certainly tried. If you're snake or lizard phobic you might want to give this book a wide berth (the lizard is really sweet by the end though).
Part of the reason I enjoyed the book so much was because it was also extremely informative. Focusing on Afghan refugees we are offered a stark reminder of the scenes we witnessed on TV when Kabul fell to the Taliban only four years ago. The author weaves some of those images into the storyline and builds upon them by tracing life for those who became refugees. Life in the camps was horrific; hunger, disease, overcrowding and assault were daily occurrences.
Everything builds to a thrilling climax where your heart is in your mouth wondering how Frankie, Sabera and friends can survive. And that ending! The author succeeded in fooling me, I'm sure a lot of readers will be the same.
Kiss Her Goodbye by Lisa Gardner will be published on 14th August 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Century for a review copy.
Author Details
A self-described research junkie, #1 New York Times
bestselling author Lisa Gardner has parlayed her interest in police procedure,
criminal minds and twisted plots into a streak of internationally recognized
novels. Her 2010 novel, THE NEIGHBOR, won Best Thriller from the International
Thriller Writers. Most recently, she was honored with the Silver Bullet Award
for her work with at-risk kids and rescue animals.
Lisa's latest series features Frankie Elkin, an everyday
average woman who specializes in finding missing people. When the locals have
given up, when the media has never bothered to care, Frankie takes on the
challenge from finding a disappeared Haitian teen in Mattapan (BEFORE SHE
DISAPPEARED), to a vanished hiker in the wilds of Wyoming (ONE STEP TOO FAR),
to a possibly kidnapped younger sister of a serial killer on a remote island in
the Pacific (STILL SEE YOU EVERYWHERE) to a missing Afghan refugee in the
broiling streets of Tucson (KISS HER GOODBYE).
Her other series include the FBI Profilers, Detective D.D.
Warren and PI Tessa Leoni. When not writing, Lisa loves to hike, travel the
world, and yes, read, read, read!