Live to Tell
"DD is a truly great character."
Synopsis:
Danielle often thinks about that night when her childhood ended. The sound of her father shooting her mother and then hunting down her brother as she cowered under her duvet, trying to drown out the sound. She can remember the sound her brother made as he was killed. And she can remember her father standing in the doorway of her bedroom, saying 'I'm sorry, Danielle...' before he turned the gun on himself. Haunting enough for any child, but Danielle has always wondered, why not her too? Why did her father let her go?
Years later, Danielle is working in a hospital that deals with the most violent and damaged of children. And someone there knows something about her past, and is prepared to kill to keep it quiet.
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Review:
Detective DD is back on the case of a multiple murder where a family has been slaughtered, but despite the plot being very heavy going, Gardner manages to keep the personal side of the characters light and even slides a couple of humorous one liners, which brings a balance to both sides. DD is a truly great character. A workaholic, completely committed to her job, but with many human traits that most people can identify with. Live to Tell, as with all of Gardner's novels, is tightly woven with many threads that appear at first to be unconnected, but as the story develops it becomes more apparent how the stories are related. This plot has a completely different take to those that I have read before which gave it a novel twist, and with Gardner being author, this only improved what was already a fantastic plot. Yet again Gardner delivers a hard packed, fast paced thriller that will leave the reader with a book that cannot be put down once the first sentence has been started. Unmissable.