Saturday, September 18, 2010

Hide by Lisa Gardner

Follow-up to the book, Alone. Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a horrific crime scene in the middle of the night by fellow detective and ex-lover D.D. Warren. An underground chamber has been discovered on the property of a former Boston mental hospital containing six small naked mummified female bodies in clear garbage bags. A silver locket with one of the corpses, which may be decades old, bears the name Annabelle Granger.

Most of the story follows an unnamed woman who has been on the run for over 20 years. We eventually discover that she is Annabelle Grander. When she decides to go report to Boston Homicide offices it causes quite the stir. Especially since she physically resemblances to Catherine Gagnon (whose life Bobby saved in Alone). There is instant chemistry between Bobby and Annabelle which leads to complications.

It takes about half the book to discover that Annabelle isn't the only one who has reinvented herself. I did enjoy the background research that the first half of the book focuses on. I found Annabelle's character much more believable and enjoyed this suspensful book. Also I did not figure out who the bad guy was and was shocked when it was revealed. I did get annoyed at the end as I find Gardner seems to love to dwell on human suffering a bit too much.

But it was a good weekend or vacation read.