Dead Weight (Lizzy Gardner, 2)

Private investigator Lizzy Gardner knows a thing or two about living in the past. As a teenager, she was terrorized by a serial killer, an ordeal that haunted her for more than a decade before the maniac was finally stopped. So when terminally ill Ruth Fullerton begs Lizzy to reopen the cold case into her daughter€s disappearance, it€s hard to say no. More than twenty years have passed since Carol Fullerton vanished, abandoning her car by the side of a California freeway. The police wrote her off as a runaway, yet something tells Lizzy the truth isn€t so simple€¦

Carol€s cold case has barely begun to thaw when Andrea Kramer shows up at Lizzy€s door. Andrea€s sister, Diane, has been missing for months, and she€s convinced a charismatic weight-loss guru€"part Tony Robbins and part Richard Simmons€"is responsible. Diane was obese, but could her obsession with losing weight have led to her disappearance?

As if two active missing persons cases weren€t enough, Lizzy is also trying to manage her two teenage assistants, including one as wounded and haunted by her past as Lizzy.

Fast-paced and deftly plotted, this impressive follow-up to the best-selling Abducted finds Sacramento PI Lizzy Gardner in over her head€"but more determined than ever to help those no one else will.