Incredible debut novel. Gripping, harrowing psychological suspense thriller!
Excellent premise and execution. The characters seem so real and the writing and suspense grabs a hold of you from the opening lines and doesn't release you.
The point of view goes back and forth between "the victim" and the policeman who is trying desperately to find her which works brilliantly.
I don't think this book is for everyone due to its graphic nature in places but i will certainly looking for more to read from this author! ( )

Detective Connor Parks meets a mysterious woman named Claire one night and they spend the night together. She's gone the next morning leaving a note with her name and address. Intrigued by her, he goes to the address only to find a broken family. Claire's family. She's been missing for 10 years since her abduction. The story is told by Claire from the time she was abducted till now and the alternating chapters are told by Connor. As Connor puts pieces together about her disappearance along with the family's investigator Mitch, they are on a trail of a predatory pedophile who kidnaps, grooms, rapes, & murders. Connor is obsessed by finding Claire and Claire is hoping Connor will find her before he ends up dead. A gripping twisted story that is told from the victims POV and the detective who is in search of her.
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Great story!!! Going to have to read more of this author! ( )

I love Lisa Regan. I love the Josie Quinn Series. This new series (Claire Fletcher Mystery #1) is a much harder book to like. Put bluntly is is BRUTAL. Every page is a hammer to a broken bone, breathtaking in its depravity, cruelty and horror inflicted by one human being upon another. It is also a brilliant study of one woman’s survival of physical and mental torture as well as psychological terror. It is very, very dark and extremely uncomfortable reading. It is another tour de force for Lisa Regan but reader beware. ( )

Finding Claire Fletcher by Lisa Regan is a creepy abduction story told from Claire's point of view. This story begins in present time with many flashbacks to Claire's kidnapping and the physical and psychological torment she experiences.

Detective Connor Parks is sitting in a bar after a very bad day. Claire approaches him, tries to pick him up and eventually goes to his home. He awakens the next morning to find her gone, leaving behind a paper with her name and home address. No phone number. Connor goes to the address asking for her and discovers this woman has been missing for 10 years.

Now why would Claire be able to leave her abductor and not return home? Because she was told he would kill her family if she ever spoke to the police. Over the years she was captive she was "rewarded" with privileges such as clothing, food and clean water if she cooperated.

She was kidnapped at the age of 15, chained to a bed, beaten, raped, starved and forced to watch him kill someone. A passage from the beginning:

“When he came home, he talked to me in that effeminate singsong voice. The thread of his one-sided conversation never deviated….in his mind I was “Lynn” and I was his. This was our home and we would be together forever.
When he looked at me he didn’t see a shrunken, dangerously thin girl with hatred in her eyes, literally chained in place.”

Claire would eventually be allowed out but the fear for her family, and the shame she undeservedly felt, kept her from returning to them. You also read about the aftermath of her kidnapping and what it did to her parents and siblings.

Here is a passage where her sister Brianna vents to Connor:

“That bastard took my sister and it ruined my life. It ruined everything, my whole family may well have been abducted because they were gone. Mom forgot about my senior prom because there was some lead on Claire’s case. During my high school graduation my parents spent more time looking at their watches than the ceremony because they couldn’t wait to get home in case the detective called with news about her.”

Does that sound selfish? No, I don't think so. Real life side story here - My son's friend was on his way home from work one evening and failed to negotiate a curve while riding his motorcycle. He crashed and died at the age of 18 years and one month. He didn't have a chance to graduate or celebrate so many things life may have offered. His parents were obviously devastated. They ran his obituary and paid to keep it running for 2 years, allowing people to still comment. His little sister was left in the shadows. Their grief actually short changed the little girl as her celebrations weren't met with the enthusiasm they may have had. I felt sorry for her. So Brianna's venting had some merit.

A note I'd like to make is the use of character names from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Perhaps it's a coincidence, or a tribute to a favored author but did anyone notice Claire, Brianna and Jenny as character names?

There is evidently a second book with Detective Connor Parks and Claire features in this one as well. While this was a page turner I think I will skip the next books. ( )