A Review of "Love You More" [67]

Love You More: A Novel By Lisa Gardner
Bantam, ISBN 978-0553807257
March 8, 2011, 368 pages

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In this, the fifth Lisa Gardner novel featuring Boston PD Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren, she is happy that at first the shooting she is called to seems pretty cut and dry. An off duty female Mass. state trooper, Tessa Leoni, is found in her kitchen, beaten and bloody, the apparent victim of spousal abuse. A few feet away lays her husband of three years, dead, shot three time in the chest with her duty gun, in what she claims was self defense.

D.D. could use an easy case. True, with the involvement of a state trooper, and one of the few female ones at that, it is a bit of a delicate political situation. Especially since the case will be investigated by the Boston P.D and D.D realizes there is more than one thin Blue Line. But with her friend and former partner, Det. Bobby Dodge, acting as the state police liaison, she hopes it will be quickly wrapped up. But very shortly the story starts to fall apart. By far the biggest question is where is Tessa Leoni six year old daughter? They put out an Amber Alert, question friends and neighbors but nothing can be found of the girl. And her mother is not doing much talking. They do, however, find a shovel in the garage covered with dirt and leaves and dogs find the scent of a dead body in the husband's car. With a missing child, that is not a good thing.

Soon, everything you thought you knew at first is in question. As the investigation gets under way, the facts become more and more ambiguous. Is Tessa an innocent victim or a horrible, plotting killer?

And will D.D. ever get home to tell her boyfriend that she, the most unmaternal of all women, is pregnant.

I have read several of the books in this series before but, I must say, while I enjoyed them, this one is excellent! D.D is a good character, very smart, a great cop. And her little personal 'problem' is interesting. I must say it will be fun in the next book to she how she deals with motherhood because she is not off to a great start.

But the real star of this book is Tessa Leoni, who we get to find out more and more about, gradually, in a series of chapters written in the first person. I often don't like books that switch back and forth from first to third person, but here it works perfectly. Just when you start to think you know what happened, where the plot is going, another layer is peeled back. Is she good, is she bad...don't decide either way too soon. In every chapter we find out something more about the characters involved and we are looking at the facts from a whole different angle..and still not at all sure where this is all heading.

Yep, I enjoyed this one.
It is a very entertaining book that I was sorry to see end. It is a true page turner, well written and tightly edited with enough twists and turns..and a few carefully dropped clues...to keep the reader engrossed until the very last page. There are a lot of facts put out there, a lot of seemingly loose threads, but Ms. Gardner keeps them all well in hand and ties it all up very nicely and neatly by the end.
If you are a fan of Gardner, you will love this one. If you have not read any of her books before, this one can certainly stand alone and would be a great one to start with.
I think you will be hooked!

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