At the start of this gritty, character-driven standalone from bestseller Gardner (Never Tell), a hiker stumbles across a human femur in the mountains of Niche, Ga. As soon as the remains are identified as those of 17-year-old Lilah Abenito, kidnapped 15 years before and long suspected to have been one of the earliest victims of now-deceased serial predator Jacob Ness, a special task force forms in hope of solving other cold cases linked to him. Led by FBI agent Kimberly Quincy (a regular in a Gardner series), the team includes someone with intimate Ness intel--survivor Flora Dane, as well as her Boston PD friend, Sgt. D.D. Warren (the lead in another Gardner series). Meanwhile, in Niche, the unanticipated heat from the investigation seems to be sparking sloppy mistakes--as well as offering a glimmer of hope to a mute teenage maid known only as Girl, who has crucial information. Though the conspiracy-powered plot eventually balloons well beyond believability and a romantic detour involving Flora distracts, Gardner melds her distinctive protagonists' stories into an emotionally powerful page-turner. Fans of kick-ass female investigators will be well satisfied. Author tour. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Jan.)

A human bone found in the remote Georgia mountains draws to the scene Boston homicide detective D. D. Warren and civilians Flora Dane and Keith Edgar. Flora, a captive of serial killer Jacob Ness, was kept as his sex slave for 427 days before she killed him, and Keith is a computer nerd who has become an authority on Ness; with Warren and supervising FBI agent Kimberly Quincy, they hope to find evidence of Ness' crimes in Georgia. In fact, the mountain area soon yields evidence of a serial killer's dumping grounds, and the nearby small town is found to be hiding dreadful secrets involving human trafficking and trading in black-market organs. Looming over it all is the Bad Man, who years earlier killed the mother of a young girl, now a mute servant known simply as the Girl, whose first-person accounts weave through the narrative, as she works her way into D. D.'s heart. A frightening climax provides an appropriate wrap-up to the Ness saga and the story of evil flourishing in a small mountain town. This is top-notch suspense by a best-selling master of the genre.--Michele Leber Copyright 2020 Booklist

Gardner here reunites several fan favorites, with FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy and Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren bringing in Flora Dane as they follow the trail of recently deceased serial kidnapper Jacob Ness to the Georgia hills, trying to sort out his cases. There's something positively creepy about the little town where they've landed, and soon they realize that Jacob has left behind secrets darker than anything he did while alive.

Three Gardner fan favoritesFBI agent Kimberly Quincy, Sgt. D.D. Warren of the Boston Police, and serial-killer-survivor-turned-vigilante Flora Daneteam up to untangle a series of murders, and lots of small-town secrets, in the Georgia hills.On a hike in the hills outside the quaint tourist town of Niche, Georgia, a couple finds the partial skeletal remains of Lilah Abenito, who went missing 15 years ago. Lilah was thought to be one of the first victims connected to Jacob Ness, who kidnapped Flora eight years ago when she was a Boston college student and held her captive, mostly in a coffin-sized box, for 472 days. The chance to link the deceased Ness to additional crimes is impossible to pass up, and FBI agent Kimberly Quincy invites D.D., Flora (who is a confidential informant for D.D.), and computer analyst Keith Edgar, Flora's friend/love interest, to be part of her task force. A search through the hills turns up a mass grave full of more skeletal remains. While D.D. is updating the mayor, Howard Counsel, and his wife, Martha, who own the charming Mountain Laurel BB, she becomes interested in their timid, fearful maid, a young Hispanic woman who's brain damaged and unable to speak following a car accident when she was a child. When Martha suddenly hangs herself (or so it seems), D.D. realizes something very odd is going on at ye olde BB. Gardner juggles multiple narratives, including that of the Counsels' nameless maid, with ease. However, the involvement of two civilians in a major federal task force is initially hard to swallow, as are a few supernatural elements Gardner (Look for Me, 2018, etc.) shoehorns in. But Flora's tentative romance with Keith and her realization that she might finally be thriving, not just surviving, are bright spots, as is Gardner's evolving and sensitive exploration of trauma and its insidious, lasting effects.These characters are so beloved that readers may not mind when a few twists veer dangerously close to the absurd. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.