Review of "Gone For Good: A Detective Annalisa Vega Mystery" by Joanna Schaffhausen

The Lovelorn Killer had stalked Chicago twenty years ago, leaving behind the bodies of women who were intricately bound and choked to death.

The killer then wrote letters to the newspapers, telling the victims how much he loved them and how sorry he was to have murdered them.



Detective George Vega was a cop on the Lovelorn Killer case, but was shunted aside when his friend and neighbor Katie Duffy - wife of a fellow cop - became a victim. The Vega and Duffy families were good friends and George couldn't let it go, dabbling at the edges of the case and roaming the streets looking for the murderer.



The police didn't catch the killer but the murders stopped, the theory being the perp was in prison or dead.

It's now two decades later and the Lovelorn Killer appears to be back. A grocery store manager named Grace Harper is found bound and choked to death, just like the original victims.



This time Detective George Vega's daughter, Detective Annalisa Vega, gets the case - and she's determined to solve it for her father, the dead women, and the Duffy family.



Katie Duffy's murder twenty years ago tore up both the Duffy and Vega clans, and Annalisa's boyfriend - Colin Duffy - left town and didn't come back.

The Lovelorn Killer's new victim, Grace Harper, belonged to an online detective club called the Grave Diggers. The club had been looking into the Lovelorn Killer, and Grace had tacked up pictures of all seven victims, along with a map showing the locations of the crimes, a police artist's sketch of the possible suspect, and other information she'd unearthed.



Grace also left behind a journal with entries about her detective work, and excerpts from the diary are interspersed through the story.

As Annalisa reads Grace's observations, she suspects the killer may have targeted Grace because the amateur sleuth was getting close to identifying him.

Annalisa is joined in the investigation by her cheating ex-husband Detective Nick Carelli.



In addition, Annalisa's old boyfriend Colin Duffy - who's become a photojournalist - returns to Chicago to help the police.



Annalisa's situation gets even more complicated when the Lovelorn Killer starts to phone her, and seems almost jealous of the other men in her life.



A cat and mouse game develops between Annalisa and the perp, which leads to more attacks and additional deaths. This ends in an exciting climax, where Annalisa does something EXTREMELY foolish. (I don't like when authors resort to this trope.)

Additional characters add interest to the story, including the people in Annalisa and Colin's families; the amateur sleuths in the Grave Diggers club; Annalisa's neighbors; Annalisa's boss and colleagues in the police department; and more.



This is the debut novel of Joanna Schaffhausen's new series, and I look forward to the next Annalisa Vega book (despite my quibble mentioned above).

Thanks to Netgalley, Joanna Schaffhausen, and Minotaur Books for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars