Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Summary and Reviews of Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen

Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen

Gone for Good

Detective Annalisa Vega #1

by Joanna Schaffhausen

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Aug 2021, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

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.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Excellent fair-play plotting, genuine surprises, and convincing characters make this a surefire winner. Mystery fans are in for a treat." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Schaffhausen...seamlessly weaves past and present together and easily manipulates strong romantic and family-loyalty subplots...in this strong series debut."- Booklist (starred review)

"Schaffhausen combines familiar tropes in an unsubtle but arresting way and concisely fleshes out the supporting cast...Visceral chills, a colorful cast, and a handful of effective twists add up to a promising series debut." - Kirkus Reviews

"Annalisa Vega is the detective you've been waiting for. A second generation Chicago cop, she has the chops to take on a serial killer, a large family to keep her grounded, and personal experience with the secrets behind closed doors." - Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Gone for Good is a riveting exploration into the dark heart of violent crime and the scars it leaves behind. Joanna Schaffhausen is a master of the craft." - Carol Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of The Lake of Dead Languages and The Sea of Lost Girls

This information about Gone for Good was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews - excellent thriller that kept me guessing and has a satisfying, surprise ending.
Annalisa Vega was assigned to The Lovelorn Killer case that re-surfaced after 20 years.

The killer's newest victim, Grace, is a member of a group called The Grave Diggers that researches cold cases.

Grace also is the member who had the most information on each of The Lovelorn Killer cases and was close to solving the mystery.

The police thought this killer was long gone, but when he kills again and also contacts Annalisa, leaves a noose with her favorite stuffed animal in a church, and also leaves a noose for another member of The Grave Diggers, the hunt for the killer becomes personal for Annalisa and more intense.

This is the first book I have read by Ms. Schaffhausen and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Her detailed, easy-to-follow writing style kept me glued to the pages with the tension mounting as Annalisa found the killer and was in danger herself.

Ms. Schaffhausen has marvelous, well developed characters…loved the debut character, Annalisa Vega.

GONE FOR GOOD is an excellent thriller that kept me guessing and has a satisfying, surprise ending.

Thriller fans won’t want to miss this book. 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Joanna Schaffhausen

Joanna Schaffhausen wields a mean scalpel, skills developed in her years studying neuroscience. She has a doctorate in psychology, which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain―how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong. Previously, she worked for ABC News, writing for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and daughter. She is the author of The Vanishing Season and Gone for Good.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more mysteries...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.