Book Review: Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!

  There are pieces of yourself that, once you give away, you can never get back.

  No one knows this more than the family member or caregiver to a child with mental illness. Unfortunately in our world there are children that do not have the option to subdue the darkness that can often lie within them. Whether this is a condition they are born with, or a result of abuse and neglect, patience is needed to care for them. And to those angels out there who love a child that may not be loved by others, this book can be looked at as a ‘thank you’ to you. 

   Live To Tell is written by Lisa Gardner, and is the fourth book in her bestselling Detective D.D. Warren series. It is published by Penguin Random House under their Bantam imprint. In it we are introduced to Danielle Burton, a psychiatric nurse who is the sole survivor of her family's massacre at the hands of her father decades prior. She works day to day trying to do her best to help the child who are patients in the locked ward that she works in; her own twisted past haunting her daily. But it is the present that haunts Victoria Oliver, as she wages a war with the darkness that inhabits her eight year old son, Evan. Inside him is a deadly persona that is set to kill if brought to the surface. Victoria is a woman on the edge of her own sanity. Her husband has left her, taking their six year old daughter, Chelsea, with him. If Victoria will not institutionalize Evan, he will keep the girl away from Evan so that he cannot harm her. But Victoria believes that she can handle Evan. After all he is only eight. But one evening Victoria is confronted by the wicked side of her child. And she needs to make a decision fast before either he kills her or someone else.  

  Across town Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren is on a date that seems to be going well. But she is interrupted by her precinct as she is called to a horrific crime scene: an entire family has been butchered, and the lead suspect is the father, currently fighting for his life at a local hospital after a botched attempted suicide. But the scene reads against murder-suicide for D.D., and she is determined to find out the real truth behind the murders. Before she can settle into the deaths of the Harrington family, another homicide call comes in with another family murdered in almost the same style, with the father appearing to be the perpetrator. Two family massacres in such a short time span cannot be a coincidence. And with the anniversary of the Burton family killings fast approaching, Danielle is on edge. 

  But who murdered two families so close to the Burton anniversary? Can Detective Warren and her squad solve these murders before a third family is targeted? Can Danielle fight the growing rage inside her? And will Victoria survive long enough to truly help her son before he kills her? Only the strong will live to tell.

   Live to Tell stepped into a world very familiar to me. As a medical professional and student of psychology, I was returned to the early years of my training. I appreciated Lisa Gardner’s wealth of information that she researched and passed on to the reader. Since this novel also comes from a personal space in the author’s life, I felt that she regarded the troubled children respectfully. She portrayed the patients of Danielle’s pediatric psychiatric ward with a three-dimensional realness that made my heart ache for these children. One in particular, Lucy, had a back story that played well with Danielle’s own troubled youth. Their friendship was touching and brought a tear to my eye many times.

   Using the narratives of Danielle, D.D., Lucy, and Victoria, Gardner sucked me into this gritty crime novel like a whirlpool that threatened to hold me under. The mystery was laid out in a way that she cleverly left clues that made me suspect many of the characters. It was a fast-paced read with three hundred and eighty-eight pages of narrative so compelling that I sacrificed sleep to finish this in two days. I could not put this book down and I was extremely satisfied with the ending of the novel, which shocked me. Of particular amusement to me was Danielle Burton and Detective Warren’s banter, who were evenly matched. Their determination to solve the crimes gave me more insight into these characters, but also involved some great moments that made me smile.  We are also introduced to Alex Wilson in this novel. Detective Warren's future husband and father of her child is just as charismatic and lovable in this novel as he is in the later ones.

   I read Live to Tell in part with the voice work of four amazingly talented narrators, Rachel Gray, Anne Marie Lee, Rebecca Lowman, and Kirsten Potter. Potter is a favorite of mine, having narrated many of my favorite suspense novels. As usual she delivers a very pointed and passionate performance handling Detective Warren’s story. Anne Marie Lee narrated Say Goodbye, which I loved, so her return to another Gardner novel was welcomed. Her reading of Victoria Oliver was done in a way that made me believe that she was the character. Rebecca Lowman handled Danielle Burton’s story. I found Lowman to be very easy to listen to, and her reading of such a troubled character was read with care. I enjoyed her work on this book. Then we had Rachel Gray reading Lucy. The short narrative that we do get from this damaged little girl is read in a whimsical manner that is also very chilling. The young narrator’s voice is ice to the heart, as we are finally let into the mind of this horribly abused girl. She did an amazing job. I could not think of four better narrators for this novel.

  Live to Tell is a tense novel filled with blend of mystery, suspense, horror, and drama. It takes an all-to-real subject and shines a floodlight on it. Lisa Gardner has written a solid suspense tale with a lot of heart and passion. I enjoyed this not only as a health care professional, but as a fan of thrillers. I gave Live to Tel five out of five stars. If you want to read a chilling book with a lot of heart, this book is for you.

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

 
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  Because there is always time to read,
   Xepherus3 


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