Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner

LIVE TO TELL by Lisa Gardner is not a cozy murder mystery, but a mystery filled with suspense, drama, nail-biting intrigue and bits of humor scattered about.

The story involves Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren of the Boston Police Department’s Homicide Unit and two women that on the surface have little or no connection.

The madness appears to being when D.D. is called away from a date to a gruesome murder scene. It’s an apparent murder/suicide where a father has killed his entire family before shooting himself. However, he’s still alive and is rushed to the hospital. D.D. waits to question him to find out if he’s a suspect or a victim.

Meanwhile, nurse Danielle Burton is battling demons of her own as she attempts to help her patients in a locked-down pediatric psych ward. Danielle can relate to the mentally and emotionally disturbed children. She carries the nightmare that claimed her family 25 years earlier.

At the same time Victoria Oliver only wants what is best for her eight-year-old son, Evan. She has devoted her life to him, she cares for him by herself, and she fears he will one day kill her.

A second family is slaughtered. Again it appears to be murder/suicide with the father killing his family before shooting himself. However, D.D. and her team quickly learn the father was already dead before he ‘shot himself.’

Is there a serial killer lose in Boston murdering entire families or are the two families connected some how. It’s up to D.D. and her unit to find the killer before another family dies.

Bit by bit, author Lisa Gardner brings these three women together. As their paths begin to intersect, the tension mounts leading the reader to guess at who the real killer is and why they are killing.

This is not a book for the fair of heart. The author takes the reader into the disturbing world of psychotic children. She explores some of the emotional problems these youngsters face and the ways in which they deal with those emotions.

From the prologue giving a glimpse of a tragedy years before until the killer is revealed in the closing chapter, you will be mesmerized by the characters and caught up in the suspense of the murders. It’s hard to put the book down until you know who will LIVE TO TELL.   

Author Lisa Gardner’s website is www.lisagardner.com

Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner, Bantam Books, @2010, ISBN: 978-0-553-80724-0, Hardcover, 388 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - I requested this book as part of the author’s blog tour and it was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.