December 19, 2011
The well-wrought suspense offsets the shaky plot of bestseller Gardner’s sixth novel featuring Boston Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren (after 2011’s Love You More). Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant, a 28-year-old police dispatch officer with a horrific childhood, expects to be murdered on January 21. One of her two best friends was strangled at home on January 21 two years earlier; exactly a year later, her other best friend suffered the same fate. On January 17, Grant seeks out Warren at a crime scene and asks the homicide detective to investigate her expected murder. Meanwhile, Warren is looking into the execution-style slayings of two pedophiles. Rookie sex crime detective Ellen O brings her expertise to this second case. Gardner skillfully tacks back and forth from Grant’s childhood traumas to her preparations to face a killer as it becomes increasingly murky whether Grant is victim, predator, or both. Fans should enjoy the numerous cameos by characters from other Gardner novels. Author tour. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.
February 1, 2012
Like her fifth case (Love You More, 2011, etc.), Boston PD Det. Sgt. D.D. Warren's sixth subordinates her to another woman just as strong as she is, and a lot more interesting. Back in high school, Randi Menke, Jackie Knowles and Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant were the Three Musketeers, inseparable buddies who'd do anything for each other. Now Randi and Jackie are dead, strangled a year apart on Jan. 21. So as this Jan. 21 approaches, Charlie is naturally terrified that her turn is coming. Accosting D.D. at a crime scene, she announces that she's marked for death, describes how she's gone on the run from her job as a small-town police dispatcher and begs her to solve her murder, still several days away. Underlining her peril is a note left at the scene: "Everyone has to die sometime. Be brave." But something about Charlie's story doesn't add up. If she's so scared that she's pulled up stakes and high-tailed it to the big city, why hasn't she changed her name? Instead of being a victim, could she be the vigilante killer of pedophiles D.D.'s squad has been hunting? Or is she both killer and victim? Alternating between the third-person narration of D.D.'s investigation and Charlie's feverish first-person narrative, and throwing in more subplots showing abused women fighting their abusers, Gardner brings the ingredients to a rolling boil until she's finally cut Charlie off from her police defenders, disarmed her and backed her into a corner awaiting her killer. Irresistible high-wire melodrama, though it's easy to see why D.D. observes, "I think we just fell into a Lifetime movie."
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Starred review from January 1, 2012
It's hard to imagine Boston detective D. D. Warren slowing down, but back to work after a blissful, eight-week maternity leave, she's determined to strike some sort of balance in her life. Her first case, however, renders that an impossibility. An alleged serial killer is targeting pedophiles. While D. D. and her crew may sympathize with this vigilante murderer's motives, they're hell-bent on handling justice the right way and catching the killer. Meanwhile, D. D. is contacted by Charlie, a young woman who claims that she will be killed on January 21, just as her two former best friends were murdered on that date in the two consecutive years prior. While D. D. would like to dismiss Charlie as crazy, the facts are there to support her assertion. As the two investigations develop, it becomes apparent that they could be linked. Gardner really pulls you in the middle of the drama, alternating Charlie's first-person retelling of the horrible circumstances of her life with the third-person narration of D. D.'s investigations. The creepy meter is off the chartsthough not sensationalizedwith children the target of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse at the hands of both strangers and parents. And, somehow, miraculously without any contrivance, Gardner's conclusion delivers a welcome glimmer of hope. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Last year, Gardner had three titles on different New York Times bestseller lists; her latest D. D. Warren novel will launch a new streak for 2012.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)