A Map of the Dark

October 9, 2017
At the start of this riveting series launch from the pseudonymous Ellis, FBI special agent Elsa Myers, a member of the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Unit operating out of New York City, answers a summons from Det. Lex Cole, who’s fresh out of vice and new to missing child cases, to meet him at his office in Queens. Ruby Haverstock, a 17-year-old high school student with a stable home life and no cause to run away, has disappeared. Ruby was last seen at the Queens café where she worked part-time. Oddly, just before the end of her shift, she turned off the security camera and buzzed someone in. As the time clock for finding Ruby ticks down, Elsa and Lex chase numerous false leads and Elsa attempts to balance the investigation and familial obligations: her father is dying in a hospital north of the city. When a suspect is finally revealed, so is a deeply personal connection to Elsa. Multiple points of view and glimpses into Elsa’s dark past heighten tension; the tight plotting will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House.

November 1, 2017
A troubled FBI agent must find a missing teen while coming to terms with her father's impending death in the pseudonymous Ellis' satisfying debut.Special Agent Elsa Myers of the New York City Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Unit is good at her job, but it doesn't quite explain why she's pulled away from her father's bedside to join in the hunt for Ruby Haverstock, a missing 17-year-old girl. Elsa is partnered with former NYPD vice detective Alexei "Lex" Cole, who's new to missing persons cases. Lex turns out to be an able partner, but he irritates as much as intrigues Elsa, who isn't one to get close to anyone--and is hiding her own secrets. Over the course of about a week, Elsa and Lex's search takes them into the mind of a man with a dark mission, one they must decipher before it's too late. Ellis writes with a lyrical economy, alternating between glimpses into Elsa's fraught childhood and the case at hand. Elsa loves her father but resents him for not shielding her from the vicious punishments meted out by her mother, who was killed when Elsa was 16. The insights into Elsa's pain and her crippling compulsion to cut herself, honed while hiding from her mother's violent outbursts, are particularly affecting: "She scratches every neon-pulsing scar on her legs, hips, stomach, arms. The pictogram of her failures heat to the hard edges of her fingernails, the crude blade-drawn outlines of sometimes something--a closed eye with lashes, a bird able to fly away, a marble capable of rolling away unseen, the number 7 because she once thought it was lucky--and often nothing, just scratches, cuts tallied on her skin."Readers will savor getting to know this singular heroine, a cop who feels the call of a lost child as sharply as the knife's edge that she uses to score her own skin.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2017

FBI agent Elsa Myer has a lot on her plate. Her father is dying of cancer. Her relationships with her sister and niece are complicated. And she's been assigned the case of a missing girl, abducted from Forest Hills, Queens, who may be the victim of a serial offender. When not interviewing witnesses or chasing down leads, Elsa keeps vigil at her terminally ill father's bedside. There she traces memories of her own difficult childhood--including a series of horrific events that continue to define her. While savvy readers won't have too much trouble identifying the kidnapper or teasing out the shocking revelation at the center of Elsa's tragic backstory, they will still be captivated by the tight prose, strong characters, and deft storytelling. VERDICT Ellis, the pen name for crime novelist Katia Lief ("Karin Schaeffer" series), has written a riveting tale that begs to be read in one sitting. Readers who enjoy police procedurals and Karin Slaughter's thrillers will delight in discovering a new voice.--Amy Hoseth, Colorado State Univ. Lib., Fort Collins

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017
Elsa Myers is tired of it all. The canny FBI agent wants to spend time with her dying father, but when she's told she's the only one who can help with the case of a missing New York City teen, she reluctantly becomes involved. The case, as well as the imminent death of Elsa's father, whom she resents for not protecting her when she was an endangered child, brings up harsh memories and the desire to self-harm that is never far off in her mind. The story is, at times, narrated by the missing teen, creating a tense tale that keeps the reader wondering if abusers ever get their due and whether true escape is really ever possible. While Ellis' novel isn't too different from the many abducted-girl tales out there, it's compelling nonetheless and makes a solid choice for readers who enjoy Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, which stars another self-doubting female detective trying to make it in a man's world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)