I’m a big fan of Lisa Gardner’s books and on the whole this one did not disappoint. In this story we see the return of ex-profiler Pierce Quincy and his wife Raine Connor. She is also an ex-officer and now helps out befriending young people in care. The husband and wife team have previously been working as consultants to the FBI, and are still trying to get over a particularly shocking murder case. This has lead Raine back into alcoholicism, of which she is in denial. Quincy has left her in the hope it will shock her into sobriety. Unfortunately Raine goes missing, and as you can expect it’s down to Quincy and his daughter to track her down. Along the way they encounter kidnappings, arson, murder, hash farms and bombings.
The story itself has the usual twists and turns we expect from Lisa Gardner and is not just a straight murder ‘who dunnit’. I didn’t guess the perpetrator and was surprised at the reveal. However once I knew who it was, it actually became quite obvious and I was surprised it hadn’t occurred to me earlier.
As with all of Lisa Gardner’s books they are jam packed with feisty female characters which I always enjoy. The women are always just as likely to run into a burning building as the men in these books, and the cast of characters in this one is no exception. I did find it slightly odd reading though, as the new female negotiator that was brought in had my name, right down to the i not y which is probably the first time I’ve ever seen it in print!
Although I did enjoy this book, and felt that there were some clever red herrings within, I don’t feel this was one of her best books. The story for some reason just felt a little flat. I like the way it moved around between the varying characters viewpoints, giving an insight into the emotions of all of them. However for some reason I felt that the middle of the story seemed to drag a bit. Its difficult to explain fully without giving away the plot, but at times you just wanted to shout at characters with frustration. There also seemed to be a few inconsistencies which bugged me. Not least of which was Kimberly running 6 miles in 30 minutes, that would be rather impressive.
Overall, I would say its very hard to find fault with anything Lisa Gardner does, and despite my small reservations I would definitely recommend this book. I think that, like anything else, authors often get better with practice. Lisa Gardner has written another 8 books since this one, and looking back I’ve read most of them. I haven’t however read her earlier ones so maybe I am just used to her current writing style. I shall have to go back to her roots and start at the beginning of the series at some point, just to see how it evolves. Something to look forward to!
A crime readers blog 