Goodreads Rating: 3.82
My Rating: 3/5
Pages: 480
This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I only just got around to reading it. This book is considered to be part of the Detective DD Warren Series, although, she hardly played a role in this book. I wasn't blown away by this book, but I didn't hate it either.
Synopses from Goodreads.com:
Alone . . . Massachusetts State Trooper Bobby Dodge watches a tense hostage standoff unfold through the scope of his sniper rifle. Just across the street, in wealthy Back Bay, Boston, an armed man has barricaded himself with his wife and child. The man’s finger tightens on the trigger and Dodge has only a split second to react . . . and forever pay the consequences.
Alone . . . that’s where the nightmare began for cool, beautiful, and dangerously sexy Catherine Rose Gagnon. Twenty-five years ago, she was buried underground during a month-long nightmare of abduction and abuse. Now her husband has just been killed. Her father-in-law, the powerful Judge Gagnon, blames Catherine for his son’s death . . . and for the series of unexplained illnesses that have sent her own young son repeatedly to the hospital.
Alone . . . a madman survived solitary confinement in a maximum security prison where he’d done hard time for the most sadistic of crimes. Now he walks the streets a free man, invisible, anonymous . . . and filled with an unquenchable rage for vengeance. What brings them together is a moment of violence—but what connects them is a passion far deeper and much more dangerous. For a killer is loose who’s woven such an intricate web of evil that no one is above suspicion, no one is beyond harm, and no one will see death coming until it has them cornered, helpless, and alone.
Alone . . . that’s where the nightmare began for cool, beautiful, and dangerously sexy Catherine Rose Gagnon. Twenty-five years ago, she was buried underground during a month-long nightmare of abduction and abuse. Now her husband has just been killed. Her father-in-law, the powerful Judge Gagnon, blames Catherine for his son’s death . . . and for the series of unexplained illnesses that have sent her own young son repeatedly to the hospital.
Alone . . . a madman survived solitary confinement in a maximum security prison where he’d done hard time for the most sadistic of crimes. Now he walks the streets a free man, invisible, anonymous . . . and filled with an unquenchable rage for vengeance. What brings them together is a moment of violence—but what connects them is a passion far deeper and much more dangerous. For a killer is loose who’s woven such an intricate web of evil that no one is above suspicion, no one is beyond harm, and no one will see death coming until it has them cornered, helpless, and alone.
Review after the jump.
So for a detective novel, this has everything you could want; a good cop in a bad place, a blood thirsty killer, and a situation where everything isn't quite what it seems. I liked how this story also highlighted the abuses of the system; powerful people using their position to hide their problems. I wasn't totally in love with this book especially since it is supposed to be a detective DD Warren book, and yet she's not in it till the middle.
I guess since I was able to have feelings for characters, thats the important part. I had my moments where all I did was yell "No! Why would you do that!? Its a trap! You deserve whatever they do to you!" I think to feel for the characters is something that every writer wants their reader to do. Was I crazy about the decisions made in this book? No. But alas, I am only the reader, and if the characters could respond to my warnings, well, that would be really awesome, but also not this book.
Something I also liked about this book was that Gardner kept you confused. You didn't know if so and so was a good guy or a bad guy (I've decided not to give anything away for this book). Alone was able to weave together a really skillful story that just seemed insane, but it was a great plot nevertheless. Sadly a plot does not make a story and there are a lot more crime books that I would recommend before this one. (I guess thats why this review is just a poor one)
This is a psychological crime novel about a woman whose husband is killed by a police sniper. The sniper kills the man because he appears to be ready to shoot his wife. It turns out that the woman and the police sniper have psychological baggage -- lots of it. The fact that the sniper kills the husband leads to an intense investigation, which is when all the twisting begins. The book has a villian that you just love to hate and a lovable child and puppy.
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed this book, much to my surprise. I am usually not a fan of "crime format" books. But the book was fairly well written, easy to read, and had some twists that made it impossible to preconceive how the book was going to end. All in all, not a bad book -- not great -- but not bad. A good book for reading on an airplane.
Lisa Gardner is famous for "woman in jeopardy" books. I like Bobby Dodge (which is where these started from at first {not DD Warren}) and read at least one more with him in it. Gardner books are formulaic but easy and fast to read.
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