Monday With Kaye: "Catch Me" by Lisa Gardner (Reviewed by Kaye George)

This week for “Monday With Kaye” the subject is CATCH ME by Lisa Gardner. Please welcome back Kaye George……

“Catch Me” by Lisa Gardner

             Gardner’s long time readers will know that she doesn't shy away from tough themes. And this is a tough one. My upfront warning is that this novel deals with pedophiles and their victims, as well as some graphic parental abuse. But I’ll immediately follow that with the opinion that this is an excellent read, a psychological thriller as well as a police procedural, done in Gardner’s usual excellent style.

The prologue plunges the reader into the lives of two girls coping admirably with their mentally unhinged mother. Then we’re whisked into the future and the life of twenty-eight-year-old Charlie (Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant), whose best friend was murdered two years ago on the 21^st of January. One year ago, on the same date, her other best friend was also murdered. The three girls were inseparable as children, after Charlie was sent to live with her Aunt Nancy as a young girl. Charlie figures that, since it’s now the 17^th, she’ll be murdered, too. She doesn’t know why, or how to prevent it, but wants the serial killer to at least be caught and punished. So she contacts the person she deems best suited to catch the killer, Boston Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren.

D.D. is dealing with her new baby, Jack, who doesn’t sleep much, and with moving into Alex’s tiny suburban ranch house. Alex, a crime scene expert and the father of Jack, wants to marry D.D., but she’s not ready to make that commitment. To add stress to her already precarious life, her parents are coming for a visit in two days. She’s also trying to track down the killer of a series of pedophiles.

Charlie, a 911 operator, leads us, holding our breath, through some tense emergency calls. The police don’t discount her weird request, to find her killer after she’s dead, since she’s on their team.

The author admits to terrifying herself as well as her reader, but she lightens the sometimes-grim mood with flashes of brilliant humor. I was terrified, breathless, and hanging on every word as I read this book.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Choke, for Suspense Magazine