New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan weaves the intimate, unputdownable story of an investigator confronting the most important–and most dangerous–mystery of her career. Investigative reporter Max Revere has cracked many cases, but the one investigation she’s never attempted is the mystery from her own past. Her mother abandoned her when she was nine, sending her periodic … sending her periodic postcards, but never returning to reclaim her daughter. Seven years after the postcards stop coming, Martha Revere is declared legally dead, with no sign of what may have happened to her. Until now.
With a single clue–that her mother’s car disappeared sixteen years ago in a small town on the Chesapeake Bay–Max drops everything to finally seek the truth. As Max investigates, and her mother’s story unfolds, she realizes that Martha teamed up with a con man. They traveled the world living off Martha’s trust and money they conned from others.
Though no one claims to know anything about Martha or her disappearance, Max suspects more than one person is lying. When she learns the FBI has an active investigation into the con man, Max knows she’s on the right path. But as Max digs into the dark secrets of this idyllic community, the only thing she might find is the same violent end as her mother.
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Abandoned (Max Revere #5) by author Allison Brennan was a highly anticipated book! I have so enjoyed reading the Max Revere series and in Abandoned we finally find out what happened to Martha Revere. Max is an investigative reporter who has succeeded in solving cold cases. The one case which has eluded her has been the case of her missing mother, Martha. When Max was nine Martha left her with the grandparents she had never met. Martha was a wealthy socialite living and traveling on the money from her trust fund until she fell in love with the excitement of being with Jimmy. Max has one clue to a sixteen-year-old mystery. The car Martha purchased using the identity of her aunt was found abandoned three months later in Virginia.
I won’t post spoilers, but the unraveling of this mystery of Martha’s life during those silent years is intriguing!
Now the question remaining…who was Maxine’s father?
Publication Date August 14, 2018
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This book was a good solid read. I’d totally try another future book by this author!
You can check out my booktube video review at https://youtu.be/I9LVNQ1OKZE
or read my review on my blog at https://lisasiefert.com/book-review-abandoned-by-allison-brennan-max-revere-novels-book-5/
The book was good and entertaining but hated the half sister’s father being killed.
Investigative Reporter Max Revere is on the most important case of her life: what happened to the mother who abandoned her years ago? Twisty and hard to put down, this is the 5th book in the series. Now I need to go find the first 4!
Didn’t see part of the ending coming. Awesome book
Max Revere is a well-known investigative reporter, an author of several books, and also hosts a TV Crime Series, featuring her solving cold case crimes.
The one investigation that she’s never tried is the mystery of what happened to her own mother. When Max was nine, her mother, boyfriend in tow, left her with her grandmother.. and never returned. She did receive postcards from time to time, but even those stopped after a few years. Her mother was eventually declared legally dead.
With a single clue―that her mother’s car disappeared sixteen years ago in a small town on the Chesapeake Bay―Max drops everything to finally seek the truth. As Max investigates, and her mother’s story unfolds, she realizes that Martha teamed up with a con man. They traveled the world living off Martha’s trust and money they conned from others.
When she learns that there is still an on-going FBI investigation with the con man being their target, Max teams up with an FBI Agent.
The more she investigates, the more she comes to understand that no one wants to admit knowing her mother, or the con man boyfriend. The more she uncovers, the more she is having to change her view of her mother, of her childhood.
Discovering what happened to her mother just may cost Max not only her career .. but her life, as well.
This best-selling author has written a poignant story featuring a woman who has felt abandoned her own life. There is nothing more she wants than to discover what happened to her mother and why she never came back for her.
The story is told in two time lines … the present .. and things that happened when Max was a child. The characters are finely crafted and indelibly living in my head. This is a real page turner …. hard to put down for any length of time.
Although 5th in the series, this one can easily be read as a stand alone. I highly recommend starting at the very beginning of this most interesting series.
Many thanks to the author / St Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this suspenseful thriller.
If you never read her books u should she can’t write fast enough 4 me
Allison Brennan’s, Abandoned, brings back one of my favorite characters, Maxine Revere. I always know she’s going to put herself in danger when she shouldn’t, but that’s half the fun of reading about her adventures. Abandoned was exactly what I expected and also a complete surprise. Max finally finds the answers she is looking for about her mom, but there is a steep cost. Brennan also provides a love interest that might actually stick; I have high hopes. I am very curious to see where Max goes from the life-changing events of Abandoned. I, of course, will be along for the ride.
Liked the way Brennan builds her characters. Definitely a page turner and a surprising plot twist.
Like this series of books (Maxine Revere). Excellent!
Abandoned by Allison Brennan
Max Revere #5
Max sounded familiar to me though I didn’t remember having read all of the books in the series. I looked back and found I had read one of them when it came out and had enjoyed it and have to say I enjoyed this one, too. Max Revere is a strong female lead with trust and commitment issues after being abandoned by her mother at the age of nine. She has finally decides to use her investigative skills to find out what happened to Martha, her mother, who was declared dead years ago. Was she murdered? Has she assumed another name and moved away? What happened to her? If she is dead then why and who killed her?
With clues brought in by a private investigator, her personal journals, postcards sent by her mother and time off from work Rex settles into the task she has set for herself. As in the other book I read in this series – Rex questions many people, follows where the clues lead, suspects various possible outcomes and then toward the end things get stirred up big time as a the threads of the mystery are unraveled to a dark gritty dirty core that leaves some dead, some injured, some with new family members and many with new truths to deal with. And, guess what? There is a new man for Rex to enjoy that (hopefully) will be a better match for her than the ones she has left behind.
Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes
Would I have wanted to have Rex’s life? Nope…no way…no how!
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan/SMP/Minotaur for the ARC – This is my honest review.
5 Stars
So first off I would recommend reading at least the book before this one to get an idea of some of the background of Max’s life. That being said you don’t have to understand this book as a lot is explained in this book. This book is finally a personal book to Max. She is finally going to know what happened to her mother 16 years ago. During this book Max stirs up a lot but I think she also finds peace with the past in this book. She also finds the perfect man for her in this book. Now I’m not saying he’s perfect just that he is perfect for her. I really enjoyed this book as it did go back into the past so you could see what was happening during a certain time frame. Allison could end the series with this book as it does have a satisfying ending but it would be more fun to have more books with Max solving cold cases, either way it was a great book.
*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.*
Thank you Net-Galley, St. Martin’s Press and Author for an advanced readers copy of this story. This is book 5 in the Max Revere series but can be read as a standalone. I have not read the others in the series yet but plan to.
I loved this book and read it pretty fast. It took me less than 3 hours total reading time to read this story over a couple of days. I didn’t want to put it down but sometimes in life we have to do what we don’t want to. I loved Max she is a strong character and in this story she is wanting to find out the truth about her mother. In the process she finds out more about herself and finds someone she didn’t know existed. This story had it all suspense, mystery, and a little romance mixed in.
I was rooting for a different outcome with one of the characters. I wanted more of him and kinda thought that maybe he would be a good fit for Max but the author told the story differently. Still loved the book though.
Maxine Revere is a well-known investigative reporter who specializes in cold cases. She decides that it is time to investigate the most important cold case of all, at least to her, the disappearance of her mother, the mother who abandoned her when she was nine years old. Max was left with her grandparents just before her tenth birthday and never saw her mother again after that. For the next few years she received post cards around the time of her birthday. Then those post cards stopped coming. Why?
Max has been haunted by the disappearance of her mother. Seven years after receiving the last postcard her mother was declared legally dead. She is really good at what she does. With the information she receives from Sean Rogan, another investigator she hired to help her look into this case Max drops everything and heads to Cape Haven, Virginia where a car suspected to have been owned by her mother was found abandoned sixteen years previously. Why there? What happened?
Abandoned is the fifth book in the Max Revere series by author Allison Brennan. The storyline is very intriguing with lots of action and suspense to keep a reader hooked until the very end. I am a big Allison Brennan fan and this story is one of her best. Fans of action-packed, thrilling suspense stories will want to read this book.
This book ripped my heart out and shredded it. It gave me a massive book hangover. There are definite plot twists. Allison Brennan was able to illicit a lot of emotion from me. I was sad, angry and devistated all at one time. It takes a great author to wring such feeling from their readers. I received an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review by NetGalley.