Last week I read ‘Catch me’ by Lisa Gardner. I’ve had this book on my too read pile for months and as she unfortunately was not appearing at the festival this year I’ve held off on reading it. As they say though good things come to those who wait, and this book didn’t disappoint.
This is the latest in the D.D. Warren series, she’s now a mother and living with her partner Alex who teaches crime scene analysis which makes for some interesting dinner time conversations. D.D is approached by Charlie who believes that she has four days left to live as both her best friends from school were murdered on the 21st (4 days hence) therefore she must be next. After surviving an abusive childhood she isn’t going to go down without a fight and has spent a year learning to box, shoot and run in an attempt to foil her killer.
Despite police investigations hitting a dead end, D. D wants to look into the cases further and Detective O offers to help. Alongside this potential murder case someone seems to be committing their own personal clean up campaign and hunting down paedophiles, a campaign which Charlie becomes the main suspect in.
As I’ve mentioned before all three of the main female characters were exactly what I want in a novel. They were feisty, clever, strong and independant. Even D.D’s motherhood didn’t slow her down, and unlike many other books that introduce babys into the mix we didn’t have to read loads of monologues about how guilty she felt about leaving the baby blah blah blah. She loves her job, and she loves her baby and will cope with both – very refreshing if you ask me!
I have read alot of Lisa Gardner books (and was lucky enough to see her interviewed at last years festival) and I think they are all excellent. Half way through the book I started to think that I knew who had done it, and that it was going to be a bit of a disappointing and easy result. However as with all good mysteries there were more twists and turns than an average person such as myself can possibly hope to keep up with. Although I thought at the beginning I knew who it was, even though I’d been correct by that point I’d convinced myself that it was someone else!
The story is fast paced and is a great read that keeps you guessing and reguessing. For those who have read previous Lisa Gardner books some old characters make an appearance such as retired profiler Quincy, however it works just as well as a stand alone novel for people who haven’t not yet encountered Detective D.D Warren.
All in all a fantastic read, and I’d definitely recommend Lisa Gardner to anyone!
A crime readers blog 