Mystery

Look for Me is the ninth book in the Detective D.D. Warren series and although it can be read as a stand alone novel a big part of the appeal for me is in the following of the series and watching the characters grow and change through personal and professional lives so new readers will be lacking a lot of the back story of the protagonist D.D.

This book also brings back a firm favourite character Flora Dane from book number eight 'Find Her' which has Flora's back story. Again you don't necessarily need to have read Find Her first but having read it does give the characters so much more depth and understanding.

However please don't let that put you off if you are new to this series, it just means you will have another eight more books to add to your tbr pile and if it is anything like mine that list is ever-increasing!

This book gives you a look at the foster care system, both the good and bad cases of how it works sometimes doesn't so be prepared to be emotionally railroaded!!

An entire family murdered and a young girl missing the chapters are told from three points of view, D.D's, Flora's and Roxy, the missing girl, this is a story of love, loss and strength from three different female characters.

The pace is relentless ensuring the pages can't turn fast enough and yet another night of sleep is forgone for many readers, of which I am one!

I am now already itching to read the next D.D. Warren novel 'Never Tell' which is due to be published on 21 February 2019.

A big thank you to the author Lisa Gardner, publishers Random House UK, Cornerstone and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

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I see that a lot of people really loved this book, but for me it was only so-so. I'm not a big fan of multiple first-person narrators, so there's that. Several times there were redundancies as different characters referred to the same things in their respective chapters. I also thought the detectives were kind of slow on the uptake a few times.

SPOILERS

The crime scene of Conrad's murder clearly indicated he knew his killer. It took the cops more than half the book to figure that out. It also took them forever to ask Evie why she had shot her husband's computer.
The string of fires on the college campus was so clearly a tactic to delay police and draw resources away from the arsonist's true target that I was really annoyed that everyone was so taken in by it.
And at the end, everyone is just standing around in a BURNING HOUSE connecting the dots of the crime. I mean, seriously?

In some ways, these examples show how well the author showed things that the reader was far ahead of the characters. But I like the detectives to be smart. The plot is full of twists and turns, with everyone lying to each other. The motives for the lies are not always clear, or believable. If people were just honest with each other, how much drama could be avoided. But then I guess there wouldn't be much of a story. ( )

Never Tell (Detective D.D. Warren #10) by Lisa Gardner

Evie is the prime suspect in her Husband Conrad's death. She also (was) the prime suspect in her Fathers death sixteen years prior. Detective D.D Warren is on the case and no stranger to Evie, as she was involved in the investigation years ago.

Flora sees the coverage on the news and feels she knows Conrad somehow. She was the survivor of a horrible crime and is a (somewhat) vigilante. She steps up to try to help in any way, willing to give it her all to help uncover the truth.

The story moves at a steady pace, with well developed characters, engaging dialog and attention to details. Secrets slowly reveled with twist and turns kept me guessing until the end.

Overall I found Never Tell enjoyable and highly recommend to those who enjoy a great crime-thriller. Fans of Lisa Gardner will not be disappointed, a good read. ( )

As always, you can't go wrong with a Lisa Gardner book! Somehow, I missed this book written in 2019. Thank goodness a friend of mine raved about it on Facebook and I immediately requested it and read it straight through today! It brings back a character, Flora, that we met in an earlier book called Find Me. Lots of action, as always, and a villain I didn't see coming until the end! Loved it! ( )