Book Review: The 4th Man by Lisa Gardner

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!

  To take established characters and bring them together to solve a case is something that Lisa Gardner does very well. In Catch Me, Gardner teamed-up Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren with many characters from previous books to help solve two mysterious murders. In the latest short novel, D.D. is reunited with FBI Profilers, Pierce Quincy, and his wife, Rainie Conner.

 

 The 4th Man is written by Lisa Gardner and serves as a collective prelude novel for both the Detective D.D. Warren and FBI Profiler series. It is electronically published by Penguin Random House under their Dutton Books imprint. In it we are drawn back into the precinct of Boston Detective D.D. Warren. During a lull in the area's crime, she has been going over cold cases that have sat waiting to be solved. As Warren investigates the murder of college student Jaylin Banks, she requests the aid of Pierce Quincy and Rainie Conner. Both have helped the detective in the past, and they have proven their value in case studies.

  Four suspects have been lined up and await interrogation. The crime itself is odd. Jaylin Banks was found strangled in the staircase of her college's library (a secure library whose only access is from those with identification cards), her sneakers missing. Add to the facts that Jaylin's neck had begun to show signs of bruising, which could only mean that when she was discovered it had been over an hour since she had been killed. With no evidence at the scene and no signs of sexual assault, the case has lagged in the system awaiting a solution. With dozens of persons already interviewed in connection to the ten year old crime, the four at the precinct are the next in the interviews. One of which is Jaylin's thuggish boyfriend who claims her personality had changed. And that she had seemed to have met either a new guy or new friends prior to her death.    

  As the case is brought into the light the witness' stories do not seem to mesh.  And it appears that wholes in the case are either there due to poor police work or lying suspects. Pierce and Rainie begin their "Good Cop/ Bad Cop" routine, and they interrogate each witness as D.D. looks on. But how did someone murder Jaylin without leaving evidence? Why was she not discovered earlier in the evening? And why were her shoes missing? It a case that only Gardner's best can crack.

  I read this book with the narration of Luke Daniels. After narrating over four hundred novels, he definitely was prepared to read a Lisa Gardner novel. I was pleasantly surprised by his voice, which seemed to make the story unfold evenly and distinctly. His voices were fun to listen to, and his direct style played very well with Gardner's narrative. I look forward to reading more books that he narrates.

  The 4th Man was a fun short novel that had me guessing, and left me with a ending that I did not expect. If you have a spare ninety minutes, sit and relax and enjoy this fun cross over. I gave the 4th Man four out of five stars.

 Have fun reading this week. Let me know in the comments below what you are reading.

 
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