Catch Me: Riveting Read from Lisa Gardner

Title: Catch Me (D.D. Warren)
Author: Lisa Gardner
Pages: 400
Genre: Suspense

Lisa Gardner is one of the top mystery and suspense authors – and for good reason! Her books have consistently been on the best-seller charts, and have been charming readers with twisty plots and finely-drawn characters for years. Her latest offering, Catch Me, is possibly the most compelling and readable of her books so far. Featuring Boston homicide cop D.D. Warren, Catch Me has a fascinating premise. What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?

Charlie Grant knows that someone is going to try and kill her on Jan 21 this year. Charlie’s one of a trio of friends from a small New Hampshire town, and her two other friends have already been killed. The first died on Jan 21 two years before, and the other on Jan 21 last year. Charlie’s next and she’s been preparing for the day all year with self-defense classes. Four days before D-Day, she approaches D.D for help. She wants D.D. to either help stop her murder, or catch the murderer, if she doesn’t survive the attack.

D.D.’s got her own issues to deal with, and initially thinks that Charlie’s a kook. D.D. has a new baby boy, she’s just back at Homicide after months on maternity leave, there’s a serial killer targeting pedophiles in the City, and there’s a dreaded visit by parents looming. But D.D. rises to the challenge, and promises to look into Charlie’s case.

From page one, the reader is catapulted straight into the incredible fast-paced and tightly-plotted book. As D.D. pursues the serial pedophile killer while simultaneously trying to figure out Charlie’s case before the Jan 21 deadline, the two seemingly unrelated major plot lines race toward each other and intersect neatly.

Catch Me moves at a frantic pace that will keep you riveted. Gardner is able to keep your attention while keeping all the balls in the air, and switching the narrative between the terrified but determined Charlie, and the cynical and experienced D.D. If you’ve been a long-time reader of Gardner’s books, and the D.D. Warren series, you’ll also spot the very noticeable change in our favorite homicide cop’s attitude; she’s mellowed after her son’s birth, and it shows. (This change was also presaged in Gardner’s ebook The Seventh Month, which came out earlier this year as a teaser for Catch Me.) If you want a riveting read that’ll keep you turning the pages late into the night, Catch Me is just the book for you.