Review: Catch Me by Lisa Gardner

First line: The little girl woke up the way she’d been trained: quickly and quietly.

From the inside cover: In four days, someone is going to kill me . . .

Detective D. D. Warren is hard to surprise. But a lone woman outside D.D.’s latest crime scene shocks her with a remarkable proposition: Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant believes she will be murdered in four days. And she wants Boston’s top detective to handle her death investigation.

It will be up close and personal. No evidence of forced entry, no sign of struggle.

Charlie tells a chilling story: Each year at 8:00 p.m. on January 21st, a woman has died. The victims have been childhood best friends from a small town in New Hampshire; the motive remains unknown. Now only one friend, Charlie, remains to count down her final hours.

But as D.D. quickly learns, Charlie Grant doesn’t plan on going down without a fight. By her own admission, the girl can outshoot, outfight, and outrun anyone in Boston, which begs the question: Is Charlie the next victim, or the perfect perpetrator? As D.D. tracks a vigilante gunman who is killing pedophiles in Boston, she must also delve into the murders of Charlie’s friends, racing to find answers before the next gruesome January 21 anniversary. Is Charlie truly in danger, or is she hiding a secret that may turn out to be the biggest threat of all?

In four days, someone is going to kill me. But he’s has gotta catch me first. 

My thoughts: This is Lisa Gardner’s latest Detective D.D. Warren book and it had me hooked right from the beginning. I find with her books that I am on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what is going on and this one was certainly no exception. Things are certainly not what they seem to be in this book.

In Catch Me, we find Boston Detective D.D. Warren just back from maternity leave after the birth of her son, Jack. She is worried about an impending visit from her parents, whom she would rather just stayed in Florida, and is trying to solve what appears to be a serial murder spree on child predators. She then meets Charlie Grant, who asks D.D. to stop her from being murdered in four days. Charlie has spent the last year training and preparing herself for this, while working the overnight shift as a 9-1-1 operator in a nearby town.

As usual Lisa Gardner gives us multiple pieces of a puzzle, seemingly unrelated cases and yet as the story progresses, she weaves and interconnects all the pieces together into a story in such a way that you are compelled to continue reading in order to find out how all it’s all going to turn out in the end. The novel is told in three narrative threads – that of D.D.’s investigation, the continuation of Charlene’s story, and a third storyline involving a young boy who is being cyber stalked. It is a fascinating look at the lives of 9-1-1 operators, the unsung heroes of the police department, as well as a glimpse into the world of pedophiles and how they use the Internet to find their victims. It definitely leaves you wondering about the safety of the Internet for kids today.

I devoured this book in one day and while I am waiting for the next D.D. Warren book to come out, I think I am going to look into Lisa Gardner’s FBI Profiler series.

(I borrowed this book from the library.)

Books in this series: 

1. Alone                                     5.  Love You More
2. Hide                                      5.5  The 7th Month
3. The Neighbor                       6.  Catch Me
4. Live to Tell