GONE FOR GOOD by Joanna Schaffhausen

Title:  GONE FOR GOOD
Series:  Detective Annalisa Vega #1
Author:  Joanna Schaffhausen
Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press
Publish Date:   08.10.2021
Category /Genre:  Mystery / Suspense
Recommended for:  18+
Grammar/editing:  received as an unedited ARC / errors excused
Received from:  St. Martin’s Press
Goodreads link: Gone for Good
Date completed: 03.22.2021
 
Description from the publisher:
Gone For Good is the first in a new mystery series from award-winning author Joanna Schaffhausen, featuring Detective Annalisa Vega, in which a cold case heats up.

The Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women, ritually binding them and leaving them for dead before penning them gruesome love letters in the local papers. Then he disappeared, and after twenty years with no trace of him, many believe that he’s gone for good.

Not Grace Harper. A grocery store manager by day, at night Grace uses her snooping skills as part of an amateur sleuth group. She believes the Lovelorn Killer is still living in the same neighborhoods that he hunted in, and if she can figure out how he selected his victims, she will have the key to his identity.

Detective Annalisa Vega lost someone she loved to the killer. Now she’s at a murder scene with the worst kind of déjà vu: Grace Harper lies bound and dead on the floor, surrounded by clues to the biggest murder case that Chicago homicide never solved. Annalisa has the chance to make it right and to heal her family, but first, she has to figure out what Grace knew—how to see a killer who may be standing right in front of you. This means tracing his steps back to her childhood, peering into dark corners she hadn’t acknowledged before, and learning that despite everything the killer took, she has still so much more to lose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GONE FOR GOOD is the first book in the Detective Annalisa Vega series.  This is expected to be a series of mystery, suspense, crime novels featuring Chicago Detective Annalisa Vega.
 
I give kudos to Joanna Schaffhausen for writing a beautifully descriptive book about a sadistic serial killer and *describing* the murder scenes *without* bogging down into blood, gore, and gratuitous depravity.
 
I enjoyed that there was even a secondary mystery included, because Grace Harper and her Grave Diggers group are investigating more than one cold case at any given time.  It was satisfying that Annalisa was able to complete Grace’s final two largest files.
 
Annalisa is a likeable main character, brave and intelligent.  Her partner, and ex-husband, Nick is also likeable – to me – even if her family doesn’t like him.  Her high school sweetheart, Colin, ran scared as a young man, but now that he has returned to Chicago I hope he becomes a more permanent fixture in Annalisa’s future stories.
 
Note:  While I received this book as a gifted ARC via NetGalley, my opinions are my own and are given freely.
 
Detective Annalisa Vega Detective Series:
1.      Gone for Good
Also from Joanna Schaffhausen:
Ellery Hathaway Series:
1.      The Vanishing Season
2.      No Mercy
3.      All the Best Lies
4.      Every Waking Hour
 

AMAZON-US
APPLEBOOKS
BARNES&NOBLE
BOOKBUB
GOOGLEPLAY
KOBO