Live to tell by Lisa Gardner

Boston police detective D. D. Warren returns in another gripping thriller. A family is murdered, apparently by the father (who, it seems, barely failed to take his own life after killing his wife and young children). But soon there are questions, the most pressing of which is, Why would this man, apparently out of the blue, slaughter his own family? Is it possible that someone else was the killer, perhaps another member of the family?  When another family is murdered in a very similar style the next day Warren fears there might be a serial killer at work instead.

We hear the story from 3 points of views - D.D. Warren from the point of view of the police, Victoria, a mother at her wits’ end - which until almost the end you wonder why you are hearing it and Danielle, survivor of a family slaughter.  Danielle works as a pediatric psych nurse on an acute hospital ward.  Every day she works with children who hurt themselves and have hurt others.  We learn that the 2 of the children from the murdered families were at the Acute ward in the last year. Through Victoria's eyes we learn that eight-year-old son, Evan, is capable of astonishing violence, including plotting to murder her.  We see that for 8 years her life has been put on hold as she does everything to keep her son even losing her husband and younger daughter. 

I have read several others of Gardner's work and so far all have featured D.D. Warren.  This by far has been the best, because it focuses more on the story behind the characters instead of the police side.  The story really came together and was engrossing even when I got angry by how some of the characters acted but it did feel authentic.