5 stars out of 5
Believable? Kinda. Sorta. Sometimes, even,
not so much. But so what? This one put me on a wild ride at the git-go and didn't let me off till the end.
What makes it extra-special is that it brings together three of the author's characters - Boston Homicide Detective D.D. Warren, FBI special agent Kimberly Quincy and recovering torture victim Flora Dane - characters with whom I've developed a kinship of sorts over the years. They are three totally different people, with totally different personal lives, but they come together here with a single purpose: ferreting out who's responsible for the bunch of human bones in the backwoods of Georgia that likely are tied to late serial killer Jacob Ness. Flora joins in because she's his only victim to survive (even though she's been trying hard to find some semblance of normalcy ever since she escaped).
During an intensive search of the area in which the original bones were found, Flora and her computer geek friend, Keith, find another burial site; ultimately, the remains of three more bodies are unearthed. All that leads the team to a tiny town that may be holding deep, dark secrets that are tied to Ness but go well beyond the horrific murders he committed years ago. One of their best hopes of getting to the bottom of things is a teenage girl who works as a maid at an inn operated by the local mayor and his wife. Clearly, she's intelligent; but previous injuries left her unable to speak, read or write; so no matter how much she knows that's crucial to the investigation, accessing that information doesn't appear to be within the realm of possibility. The only thing the investigators know for sure is that no one in this town or surrounding woods can be trusted - not even the local sheriff whose help they've enlisted.
All told, the action never lets up - keeping me glued to my Kindle with time out only when household chores (like feeding my long-suffering husband) and the need for sleep intervened. Thoroughly enjoyable - and I hope to see these three strong women come together again in future books (hint, hint). Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.
When You See Me by Lisa Gardner (Dutton, January 2020); 400 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Over the past few years, I've read four books by this author, and every single one earned a 5-star rating from me. As such, I wasn't too worried about this one. And guess what? It carries on the tradition of high marks; quite literally, I didn't want to put it down once I got started.
The "stars" of the show are D.D. Warren, a sergeant detective in the Boston Police Homicide Division, and her feisty street-wise informant, Flora Dane. Once a tortured kidnap victim, Flora mostly works as an advocate for survivors of similar crimes; she's far from healed emotionally, but her horrific experience turned her into a force to be reckoned with.
The story begins with a pregnant Evie Carter, who returns home to find that her husband of 10 years, Conrad, has been shot and killed. She admits she believes he'd been cheating - and also to picking up the murder weapon and "killing" his computer with several well-placed shots. But she insists she isn't his killer. D.D. gets called in on the case, and immediately there's a problem: Several years earlier, Evie's father was shot and killed in a similar fashion. Evie admitted to the shooting, but swore it was an accident (a claim backed up by her mother). Ultimately, her father's death was deemed an accident. D.D. investigated that years-ago case - and she's always had doubts about Evie's innocence. The second time around, something really stinks; D.D. just doesn't buy the coincidence thing.
And that's not the only coincidence; as D.D. leaves the latest crime scene, she spots Flora across the street. D.D. learns that Evie's husband may have had a connection to Jacob Ness, the awful man who kidnapped and tortured Flora. As the chapters shift from the points of view of D.D., Evie and Flora, the connections between the latter two women and the men they knew get stronger and stronger - as did my eagerness to know how the whole thing would turn out. If Evie really didn't kill her father, who did? Was her husband of 10 years and the father of their unborn child keeping dark secrets from her?
I know the answers, of course, but I'll [insert book title here]. What I will do, though, is recommend this one - another one well done!
Never Tell by Lisa Gardner (Dutton, February 2019); 414 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Generally speaking, I shy away from short stories. But once in a while, especially if it's coming from a favorite author, I relent. Recent releases by Dean Koontz and Jonathan Kellerman come to mind - short stories they wrote as lead-ins to upcoming books. In fact, I've even read a shorty by this author, who's also on my list of favorites -- albeit one co-written with M.J. Rose for the anthology FaceOff a few years back (an outstanding compilation that I highly recommended, BTW). So when I got a chance to read an advance copy of this one, I didn't hesitate.
I'm actually glad it's very short, because I really didn't want to put it down and could finish it in one sitting. As it begins, Detective D.D. Warren is at home with her crime scene analyst husband Alex and their son Jack after a day that began with a very much alive man coming to the station to insist that really, he's very much dead. Believing him to be a bit deranged, the cops send him home. That belief turns upside down a couple of hours later, though, when they get a phone call: It seems the man was on the right track but spoke a bit too soon. Now, his claim is official - and the knife in his back is a dead giveaway that someone else helped him prove his point.
Sections of the book shift back and forth from the after-work discussion to the police station and the beginning of D.D.'s day, from announcement of the man's death to the progress and conclusion of the investigation. Much of that takes place inside the man's ostentatious home, wherein live the man's widow and several exceptionally well-paid servants - all of whom are suspects. Because everything happens in such short order I can't say more without giving away too much, but it's all cleverly written with overtones of the game of Clue: We know it was a knife, but was it the chef in the kitchen? The doctor in the bedroom? The wife in the sitting room? In the end, I'm glad I didn't put money on my chosen culprit; had I done that, I'd be eating ramen noodles for the rest of the week.
After the case wraps up, readers can take a peek at the author's next D.D. Warren book. Me? Thanks, but I prefer to wait for the whole thing and go in cold turkey - but it's there for inquiring minds who want to know ahead of time.
The Guy Who Died Twice by Lisa Gardner (Penquin Group, January 2019); page length not listed.
5 stars out of 5
I really like D.D. Warren, a woman who hasn't quite reached "normal" after a very shaky past despite loving, understanding husband Alex and 5-year-old son Jack. Here, she teams up with Flora Dane (a character from previous books), who's also making strides toward normal after more than a year of being kidnapped and seriously abused. Both women bury themselves in their work; D.D. as a sergeant detective with the Boston P.D., and Flora as an advocate who helps other crime victims find new and productive lives.
Neither trusts the other; but sometimes, two heads really are better than one no matter how reluctantly they bump together. In this instance, the motivation to join forces follows the grisly murder of a family of two adults and two children. An older daughter, Roxanna, somehow escaped - presumably because she was out walking the family's two blind dogs.
They seemed like a typical family, but they weren't without issues; the mother, a recovering alcoholic, lost her three children to a frightening foster care experience for a time, only recently turning her life around, getting them back and moving to a small but cozy house. To that end, the question of why the family was murdered in cold blood needs to be answered before they can determine the who. And speaking of the latter, why hasn't Roxanna turned up? Surely she's heard that her family is dead - could it be she's in hiding because she's the killer?
As much as anything, this book is a study in character - or more to the point, how people act (and react) when bad things happen to them. D.D. and Flora are trying to help themselves by helping others; but the Baez family, from mother Juanita to Roxanna, her younger sister Lola and even their much younger brother, Manny, have found their own, very different, ways of coping. Chapters shift from the perspectives of D.D., Flora and Roxanna, each revealing bits of what's going on until they blend together in a far from perfect - but somewhat hopeful - ending.
And from my perspective, I say another one well done. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Look for Me by Lisa Gardner (Dutton, February 2018); 400 pp.
5 stars out of 5
By the time I'd finished the first half-dozen chapters of this book - the third in the author's series featuring investigator Tessa Leoni - I was so freaked out I considered calling it quits. But under no circumstances should you interpret that to mean it's a terrible or poorly written story.
In fact, it's just the opposite. The book begins with an investigation of a spectacular crash of an SUV driven by Nicky Frank, who ignores extensive injuries to claw her way out of the wreckage. She was, she claims, desperate to find a young girl named Vero who is presumed to be her daughter and a passenger in the vehicle. After an extensive but futile search for the child, the investigators, including police Sgt. Wyatt Foster, visit Nicky at the hospital where she's recuperating. There, they learn from her husband of 22 years, Thomas, that she has suffered two other recent concussions, is in frail mental health and - most important - is not and never has been a mother. Turns out Nicky is the client of Tessa's P.I. firm, and coincidentally, Tessa is in a relationship with Wyatt; so, he calls her in to help.
Okay, so what's the freaky part? Well, in between chapters laying out the progress of the investigation are those told from Nicky's point of view; and both what she knows and what she doesn't remember is downright frightening. A few more missing bits and pieces are re-conjured up in her memory each time she gets a chance to tell her story in print, and although I was certain everything would come together in the end, there are only dribbles of clues as to the how, when, where or who.
There are even a few appearances by the author's other series character, Detective D.D. Warren, who's recuperating from a serious injury that's sidelined her career. Her friend Tessa, it seems, is trying to coerce the detective into joining her firm, and handing her an assignment while she's got some spare time on her hands not only will go a long way toward accomplishing that, but may help Tessa and Wyatt get to the bottom of their investigation as well. I'll note here that I've read most of the Warren books (the most recent, Fear Nothing, earned 5 stars from me as well).
Much as I'd like to be more explicit, there isn't much more I can reveal without spoiling things for other readers except to say that Nicky's memories get darker and more twisted as her recollections return in odd pieces that in the end come together to form a rather horrific picture.
And that, my friends, is book review-speak for Read. This. One. Now.
Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner (Dutton Adult, February 2015); 398 pp.
5 stars out of 5
Talk about grabbing your attention in the first couple of pages - my mouth dropped open about a foot when I read that the first murder victim in the latest in the series featuring Boston Detective D.D. Warren was Christine Ryan. Why was I taken aback, you ask? Because that happens to be our daughter's name!
That jolt, of course, wouldn't be enough to keep me hanging on - or for me to award this book 5 stars. But trust me, what followed made me reluctant to put it down (to the point of my casting longing sideways glances at my Kindle as I was fixing dinner or dusting the coffee table). And head games? Wow! If you're looking for psychological drama accompanied by no shortage of gruesome murders, this one definitely falls into the don't-miss category.
As the book opens, Warren is off the job recuperating from a devastatingly painful injury she incurred when an unknown assailant pushed her down a flight of stairs at an earlier crime scene. When a second woman is murdered in a virtually identical fashion - including leaving a red rose and a bottle of champagne and a particularly distasteful post-mortem action - it's clear they're dealing with a serial killer.
When Warren consults with psychiatrist and pain specialist Adeline Glen who, ironically, suffers from the total ability to feel physical pain, and the discussion turns to the murders, both women realize aspects of the murders are strikingly similar to the MO of the doctor's sister, Shana, who's been in prison since her teenage years after being convicted of killing a teenage boy (and, while in prison, has killed again at least twice). Both Adeline and Shana, as it turns out, are daughters of a deceased and well-known serial torturer, murderer and child abuser - from whom, apparently, Shana has "inherited" her killing tendencies. But did Adeline inherit them as well?
Unraveling the connections and finding the new killer takes on many twists, turns and suspects - and provides an experience this reader didn't want to end. One of Gardner's best efforts - and one of the best books I've read in a while.
Fear Nothing: A Detective D.D. Warren Novel by Lisa Gardner (Dutton Adult, January 2014); 400 pp.
