A review by kbranfield
Abandoned by Allison Brennan

4.0

The fifth installment in Allison Brennan's Max Revere series, Abandoned is an intriguing mystery about a cold case that is has haunted Max for nearly twenty-two years. This latest release can be read as a standalone, but I highly recommend the previous novels in the series.

Investigative reporter Max Revere is taking time off from her cable show in order to concentrate on the cold case that she has never been able to crack: the inexplicable disappearance of her mother, Martha Revere. When Max was nine years old, Martha left her daughter with her grandparents and took off for parts unknown with her boyfriend, Jimmy Truman. Over the next six years, Max received a handful of postcards from Martha, but after her sixteenth birthday, she never heard from her mother again.  With new information that puts Martha in a seaside town in Virginia around the time she stopped mailing postcards, Max makes finding out the truth about what happened to Martha a priority.

Max is rather tenacious as she tries to retrace Martha's footsteps. She is quite methodical as she questions anyone who has even the slightest connection to the case. She is very thorough as she researches the time period when Martha was known to be in town. Max tries to temper her usual blunt approach when she questions Jimmy's brother, Gabriel, but he rather forcefully shuts her down.  After she discovers the FBI was looking into Jimmy, she teams up with FBI Agent Ryan Maguire to try to find out what happened to Martha and Jimmy who has vanished as well.

Unbeknownst to Max, her investigation is going to turn her life upside down. She has no idea what Jimmy and Martha were mixed up in, but readers get a front seat to their activities through a series of enlightening flashbacks. Max's quest for answers sets in motion an unstoppable chain of events that will ultimately put Max and several other people in grave danger.

Abandoned is an evenly paced mystery with an interesting storyline and a cast of memorable characters. Max slowly but surely pieces together much of her missing mother's life but will she find out for sure what happened to Martha? With stunning twists and shocking revelations, Allison Brennan brings the novel to an edge of the seat, dramatic conclusion. This newest addition is sure to be a hit with old and new fans of the Max Revere series.