Series: Book 1 in the Detective DD Warren series
Rating: Not rated
Tags: Rich people, Judges, Police, Mystery & Detective, Boston, Crime, Family violence, Police - Massachusetts - Boston, General, Boston (Mass.), Judges - Family relationships, Mystery fiction, Massachusetts, Family relationships, Thrillers, Suspense, Fiction, Police shootings, Lang:en
Summary
For 300-some pages, Gardner (_The Perfect Husband_) keeps
readers spellbound—not just by her plot but by the
beautifully realized character of Massachusetts police sniper
Bobby Dodge. He meets his match in Catherine Gagnon, who as a
girl was snatched, raped and nearly murdered. Now she's the
wife of erratic, rich Jimmy Gagnon and mother of perpetually
ill four-year-old Nathan. When Bobby kills Jimmy during a
hostage situation at the Gagnons, he does it to save
Catherine and Nathan. But was it a righteous shoot, or did
Catherine engineer the killing? Judge James Gagnon and his
wife, Maryanne, think Bobby murdered their son out of lust
for Catherine. As other people start dying, very messily, and
the DA and cops come down hard on Bobby, Gardner keeps the
tension high and the pace fast. But resolution comes in what
may be the clunkiest chase crafted by a pro this year: "Bobby
processed everything at once. Three open doorways, three
bedrooms. He ran by the first, then the second, and came
sprinting into the third just in time to see Maryanne
staggering back." Ten pages later, so many characters have
run into so many rooms, it's amazing that the right person
finally gets his head blown off by the right avenger. But
Garner then ends with a neat postlude offering one more
twist; her fans will feel requited.
It was bad enough that Catherine Gagnon survived a
horrible childhood abduction where for a month she lived in a
cave and was the plaything for her sicko abductor. But now,
25 years later, she faces tragedy again as she fights to keep
her son, Nathan. One chilly November night, a police sniper
kills her husband, Jimmy, in response to her 911 call
claiming he was about to hurt Nathan. Jimmy's death means
that his parents, an influential judge and his blue-blooded
wife, are more determined than ever to take Nathan from
Catherine, whom they see as unfit to mother their only
grandchild. True, the birth of Nathan mentally paralyzed
Catherine, who could not get past the memories of her
abduction and her emotionally absent parents. But is she
really the monster the Gagnons and their PI make her out to
be? Massachusetts state police special-ops officer Bobby
Dodge, the sniper who took out Jimmy, doesn't think so, and
unwittingly falls under the spell of the manipulative widow.
A twisted, effective psychological thriller.
Mary Frances Wilkens
From Publishers Weekly
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