Flora Dane was just a college student on spring break in Florida when she was abducted and held for 472 days. Now, five years later, she is determined to never be a victim again. Armed with self-defense training, a keen sense of her surroundings, and pages ripped from the headlines about missing girls plastering her bedroom walls, Flora sets out to rid the world of predators and regain her lost confidence. When another missing girl makes the nightly news, Flora believes she will find her, even if it means putting her own life on the line once more. -VERDICT With her fifth Detective D.D. Warren thriller (after Fear Nothing), Gardner doesn't disappoint. Longtime fans as well as those new to the series (there is no need to have read the other books in the series to enjoy this one) will delight in this suspenseful offering. [See Prepub Alert, 8/31/15; LibraryReads February pick.]-Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ. Lib., Florence, SC © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Florence "Flora" Dane, the victim and survivor at the center of bestseller Gardner's compelling eighth novel featuring Boston Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren (after 2014's Fear Nothing), has a flat affect and a burning compulsion to meet sexual predators five years after the FBI rescued her from a man who abducted her while she was a UMass student, imprisoning her in a coffin for 472 days. He also raped her repeatedly. One night in a bar, Flora has an encounter with a pick-up she refers to as "Mr. Haven't I Seen You Around Here Before" that leads to a fatal confrontation and to her meeting D.D., who wonders whether Flora can assist in the case of Stacey Summers, a Boston College student who has been missing for three months. As D.D.'s investigation progresses, the reader is treated to fascinating insights into the psychology of sadistic sexual predators, trauma bonding, and the effects violent crime have on victims and loved ones. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Flora Dane survived for 472 days while being held captive by a sexual predator. Kept in a coffin-sized pine box and slowly starved, she found herself grateful to be let out, even if it meant enduring physical and sexual abuse. After being rescued, she told her story only once, to FBI victim advocate Samuel Keynes. Seven years later, she is still far from the carefree girl who was abducted while on spring break. She scares her loving mother and brother with her risky behavior. Boston detective D. D. Warren encounters Flora when D. D. is called to the scene of a brutal murder, apparently committed by Flora. Then she discovers that Flora has been involved in three previous incidents. D. D. is stumped: Why would a victim purposefully and repeatedly put herself in harm's way? Gardner details the good work of an obscure FBI department while exploring the psychology of sexual predators as well as their victims. Like Karin Slaughter and Chelsea Cain, she turns an unflinching gaze on brutal acts of sexual exploitation. Disturbing reading from a veteran crime writer. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The combination of best-selling Gardner's name recognition with the return of her most popular character ensures the high visibility of her latest work.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2015 Booklist

A kidnapping survivor-turned-vigilante tries to save another young woman while the police do everything they can to save them both. Flora Dane might look unscathed but she's permanently scarred from having been abducted while on spring break in Florida seven years earlier by Jacob Ness, a sadistic trucker who held her captive for 472 days, keeping her in a coffin for much of the time when he wasn't forcing her to have sex with him. Now back in Boston and schooled in self-defense, Flora is obsessed with kidnapped girls and the nature of survival, a topic she touches on a bit more than necessary in the many flashbacks to her time in captivity. Gardner (Crash Burn, 2015, etc.) must walk a fine line in accurately evoking the horrors of Flora's past ordeals without slipping into excessive descriptions of violence; she is not entirely successful. When Flora thwarts another kidnapping attempt by killing Devon Goulding, her would-be abductor, Gardner regular Sgt. Detective D.D. Warren's interest is piqued even though she's meant to be on restricted duty. Then Flora disappears for real, and Warren, along with Dr. Samuel Keynes, the FBI victim specialist from Flora's original kidnapping, fears it's related to the kidnapping three months earlier of Stacey Summers, a case Flora followed closely. Gardner alternates between Warren's investigation into Flora's disappearance and Flora's present-day hell at the hands of a new enemy, but the implausibility of the sheer number of kidnappings, among other things, strains credulity. A gritty, complicated heroine like Flora Dane deserves a better plot than this needlessly complicated story. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.