#BookReview: NEVER TELL by Lisa Gardner @LisaGardnerBks @PenguinUKBooks #DDWarren

Publication: 21st February 2019 – Cornerstone

One death might be an accident.
Two deaths looks like murder.

A man is shot dead in his own home, and his pregnant wife, Evie, is found with the gun in her hands.

Detective D.D. Warren instantly recognises her. Sixteen years ago, Evie also shot her own father. That killing was ruled an accident.

D.D. doesn’t believe in coincidences. But this case isn’t as open and shut as it first appears, and her job is to discover the truth.

Evie might be a victim.

Or she might be about to get away with murder again.

I am ashamed to say I am new to the novels by Lisa Gardner. I mean, I have heard of her, but I have never read any of her novels. When I saw that NEVER TELL, her last novel, was on NetGalley, a story about a young woman accused of killing her husband after getting away with her father’s murder sixteen years earlier, I was really intrigued and I decided to give it a try and I am really happy I did.

The protagonists of this novel are three women, three strong-willed, smart, kick-ass women, who won’t stop until they find out the truth. The first one is Evie. She was the character that it was more difficult to read. Having spent all her life living in the shadow of her genius father, Evie is very introvert, at times, she seems naive, and she is clearly hiding something. When she was sixteen years old Evie “accidentally” shot and killed her father. Now, the police find her standing next to the body of her husband Connor, who’s been shot three times and she is the one holding a gun. She claims she didn’t kill him, but how many times you can get away with murder?

Investigating Connor’s death is detective D. D. Warren. She investigated the death of Evie’s father sixteen years earlier and she thinks it’s too much of a coincidence that another man in Evie’s life has been shot dead. However, as she dugs deeper into Connor’s life she starts to think that things are much more complicated than it seems, especially after Fiona Dane gets involved. This is the tenth novel featuring D. D. Warren. She is really good at her job, she follows the evidence, but she is not afraid to think outside the box. There are a few glimpses into her family life and I enjoyed reading about her energetic son and her vivacious dog

Fiona was kidnapped and abused when she was in college and now she is an activist and one of DD informant. She had met Connor before and his death forces her to revisit memories from her past. Her tale was particularly hard to read, but Fiona is the character I admired most for her determination and stubbornness.

The characters are realistic, well-developed and engaging, the plot is gripping, compelling, and full of twists, and the author addresses themes that make for a thought-provoking and sometimes disturbing read. I really liked the author’s writing style, clear and immersive, and I am definitely going to catch up and read all her previous novels which, I am sure, are as captivating as NEVER TELL.