I hadn't read any of Lisa Gardner's books before but had heard of her so when I saw she had a few in the library I picked up one that sounded good and wasn't too big to fit in my bag.
The story is about a woman called Annabelle Granger who had spent most of her life on the run, as her father ... Read review
Advantages: Good pace and twists Disadvantages: Previous book means not all characters explored fully
I hadn't read any of Lisa Gardner's books before but had heard of her so when I saw she had a few in the library I picked up one that sounded good and wasn't too big to fit in my bag.
The story is about a woman called Annabelle Granger who had spent most of her life on the run, as her father made the family move from place to place changing aliases throughout her childhood until eventually they ended up back in their hometown of Boston ... ...paper and discovers that she has been declared dead, her body found in an underground chamber along with five other young girls.
Annabelle goes to the police where she meets Detective Bobby Dodge and Sergeant DD Warren. Bobby is new to working with the Boston police as he used to be a police sniper but due to events in the past he has changed his career path. These events involve working with a woman who had previously been kidnapped ... more
I hadn't read any of Lisa Gardner's books before but had heard of her so when I saw she had a few in the library I picked up one that sounded good and wasn't too big to fit in my bag.
The story is about a woman called Annabelle Granger who had spent most of her life on the run, as her father made the family move from place to place changing aliases throughout her childhood until eventually they ended up back in their hometown of Boston and her father died. One morning Annabelle opens the paper and discovers that she has been declared dead, her body found in an underground chamber along with five other young girls.
Annabelle goes to the police where she meets Detective Bobby Dodge and Sergeant DD Warren. Bobby is new to working with the Boston police as he used to be a police sniper but due to events in the past he has changed his career path. These events involve working with a woman who had previously been kidnapped as a young girl and kept underground but had managed to escape. The police wonder if these two crimes are linked and Annabelle works with Bobby to unravel the mystery of her past and the graves that have been found now.
I enjoyed this book, it was quite pacey and intriguing, without having too many twists and turns so that you get lost when you put it down for a day. I wasn't sure if it was part of a series before I read it and the blurb didn't suggest that it was but whilst I was reading I felt like there had been a previous novel with Bobby and Catherine, the woman who had been kidnapped in the past. It felt like that because although you got the basics of what had happened it was all skimmed over rather quickly which I felt didn't sit right with the rest of the story. When I got to the end of the book there was a Q&A with the author Lisa Gardner which I read and she says there had been another book with Bobby called Gone, and it is advertised at the back too and is the story of him and the girl that was kidnapped. Perhaps I'll read that as well to get to know Bobby better, but the storyline does sound quite similar.
Annabelle's character is well developed, she is written in the 1st person, but Bobby's in the 3rd, so you get to see what she thinking and really get to understand her paranoia about her security that has been instilled in her from a young age by her father. You can she is lonely from her life on the run and wishes to have a normal life and fall in love like other people but as she has never known what the family were running from she has never been able to let her guard down.
I didn't feel I got to know the other characters so well and as I said felt there had been a previous book, so perhaps you got to know Bobby better in the past novel. You can see that he has been damaged by the events in the past and he and DD have a past together, but he comes across as a good but learning detective which does make a change from reading about detectives who have been in the job for years.
As with all murder/detective books there are characters put in to lead you in the wrong direction and this book was very good as there were a number of options for the murderer and I didn't know who it was until the twist at the end and the fast paced finish. The story moved along well and it seemed to use more old fashioned police work in it than forensics which I liked and although it is rather far-fetched I found I wanted to read it and finished it quite quickly. I will be looking out for more of Lisa Gardner's books as I enjoyed the pace, characters and detective work which kept me guessing and I would recommend this book to others who enjoy crime novels.
