A Map of the Dark

(Paperback)

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Description

A girl, missing

A woman, searching

A killer, planning...

FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people.

She knows how it feels to be lost...

Though her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, Elsa cannot refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has gone missing from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads hides the fact that she did not go willingly.

With each passing hour, as the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man who may have been killing for years, the case starts to get underneath Elsa's skin. Everything she has buried - her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother's death - threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.

In order to save the missing girl, she may have to lose herself...and return to the darkness she's been hiding from for years.

Reviews

A terrific novel, wonderfully written, richly populated, and utterly gripping from start to finish - Chris Pavone

A riveting, breathless novel, equal parts police procedural and emotional personal journey. Karen Ellis's twisty plot, dark storytelling, and nail-biting action kept me reading far too late into the night. A triumph! - Karen Dionne

A beautifully rendered portrait of familial grief, loss, and decades-old demons wrapped inside a terrific race-against-time thriller starring a believably flawed heroine. I hope we haven't seen the last of FBI agent Elsa Myers - Sarah Weinman

One of the most compelling psychological thrillers I've read in a long time...grabs you from the very first page and does not loosen its grip. I read this book in a day - I simply could not put it down - but I will be thinking about it for much longer. - Alison Gaylin

Vivid, compelling and emotionally engaging. Elsa is an unforgettable central character, damaged but determined. You know you are in good hands as the plot skilfully brings her past and her family into the investigation. - Jane Casey

Author Bio

Karen Ellis is the pseudonym of Katia Lief, the author of several internationally bestselling crime novels, including The Money Kill, the fourth installment of her Karin Schaeffer series published in 2013 and nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She teaches fiction writing at The New School in Manhattan and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.