One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Series: FBI Profiler, Book 6
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 368 Pages, 6045 Locations
Formats:  Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


Every once in a while I read a book that affects me a little deeper, digs in a bit more, disturbs or touches me just a little differently than those I read the rest of the time. They're often the most difficult books to rate, because I can't qualify them as easily. Did I like? Love it? Those aren't the right words for something so deeply disturbing, or hauntingly chilling. Well, did I at least enjoy it? Again, enjoyment isn't even close. I'm left shattered, brittle...moved. Horrified and saddened by the damnable tragedy of it all yet deeply admiring of the talent it took to write.

Say Goodbye is one of those books.

In the mountains of Georgia there is beauty and brutality and, of course, there are spiders. A killer hunts his prey and prostitutes vanish. But so do little boys. Stolen to assuage a monstrous appetite. In those graceful, gruesome mountains innocence is irrevocably, irretrievably shattered.

FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quinn, now five months pregnant, gets drawn into a case that threatens her marriage, her unborn child, and the foundations of her sense of self. What starts out as a few potential missing prostitutes and an unsolved and seemingly random homicide of a former high school jock is all a part of an insideous web of such utter destruction that the scope is almost beyond comprehension. Just...look up.

I'm emotionally spent after finishing this book. Utterly wiped out. It's brilliantly written. Stylistically it's crafted just as intricately as any spider's web and is just as deceptively strong . Kimberly is a solid heroine, and Gardner has offered up her flaws, foibles, and fascination with pudding to create a complex but genuine woman struggling with the confusions and conflicts of looming parenthood. I didn't always like her. I sided with her husband on a few critical issues, but saw Kimberly's side as well, even if I didn't happen to agree. She was selfish at times, for all her intelligence and dedication, and some of her motives and actions were less than pure. No, I didn't always like her. But I respected the hell out of her, because I believed her. I believed in Gardner's rendition of a character who is very conscious of her own demons, and still manages to step on their toes now and then, even as they chase her.

Technically and stylistically, this book knocked it out of the park. The transitions were extremely effective and there were several long, hard looks at the descent into despicable evil. And it was so very scary that I was able to sympathize with a man-made monster. So very, very scary. The police procedural aspects of the story were perfect. Gardner creates characters, then lays out the clues, and spins it all into a taut, gripping, devastating story. I could practically feel the time ticking in the back of my head through every moment of the read, ticking and tocking away as my stomach clenched and rolled, desperate for some light at the end of a most desolate tunnel.

It must be said - must be said and re-said, actually, that this book is not for everyone. Readers need to be more than warned, there needs to be great big flashing lights and maybe a few of those disaster sirens going off for this one. Do not read this book if you are in any way sensitive to brutality against children, because there is plenty of that in this book.

Was it graphic...? It wasn't graphically described blow by blow, no...but it's plainly and coarsely referred to and mentioned several times in several horrifying ways throughout the book. The monster - and he is monstrous - is a pedophile who kidnaps, rapes, and kills little boys...among other things that are equally disgusting. The scope of his crimes, the level of his brutality, and the horror of the debasement of his victims are not spared in the telling of this book. Please do yourself a favor and try another one of Gardner's titles if you think you may not be able to handle that.

I don't consider myself a sensitive reader. I love books and shows that deal with psychopaths, watch and appreciate true crime documentaries, and am fascinated with aberrant psychology. I thought Silence of the Lambs (both the book and the movie) was brilliant and chilling, and Hannibal Lector will always look like Sir Anthony Hopkins in my mind. But Silence of the Lambs didn't affect me like this did. Maybe it was because the violence was mostly against children. Those are the most difficult victims to have to accept, and when coupled with the perversity of the antagonist, I was deeply disturbed.

Did I like it? Love it? No. In fact, it was disgusting and traumatic in parts. I appreciated the intelligence and style with which it was written. I thought the concept, plot, and characters were robust, fully realized, and freaky with atmosphere. I had a couple of minor issues with a subplot, and there was a plot twist that I saw coming a mile away, but they didn't affect my appreciation of the book. It was a polished, sophisticated novel with power and intensity.

And it was the most disturbing book I've read in a good long time.

Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Series: N/A
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: Novel
Formats: Hardcover, Mass Market Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook, Audio


Twenty-five years ago, seven year old Annabelle Granger came home from school to find five suitcases packed and her parents urging her to grab just two things to take with her as they fled from their home and the life that they knew. For years they shuffled around the country, leaving at a moments notice, keeping their heads down and changing identity with each location. Annabelle...though she didn't go by that name anymore...never new why. First, she lost her mother to the combination of booze and pills, the constant flight too much for her. Then, older and wiser, Annabelle and her father return to the city of Boston, the same city they'd fled from so many years ago. Her father died not long after, a victim of a hit and run. For a decade following that, Annabelle, known as Tanya now, has worked and lived in the city of her childhood. Then one day she read a newspaper and saw the news. Her body had been found. Annabelle Granger was dead, along with five other young girls found in a pit of darkness and horror far deeper and more malignant than the earthen tomb itself. Maybe now, after all these years, Annabelle can find out why. Why had she been forced all her life to hide?

Lisa Gardner has penned an incredibly complex, twisted, and gripping suspense novel in Hide, pairing former sniper turned state detective Bobby Dodge together with ex-lover and now Boston PD Seargent D.D. Warren to solve a case with a myriad more questions than answers. A veritable rabbit warren of paths lead to clues and connections that only a true mastermind of suspense could ever dream up, and I was utterly compelled by the intensity and vitality of the story and characters. With impeccable pacing, the plot twists tighter and tighter as Annabelle goes to the police to both get answers and give them, and Bobby finds himself drawn to the reclusive woman with such stark strength in her eyes, but Annabelle's emergence from a lifetime of shadows sparks a sick and twisted mind to focus on her yet again. Apparently not even a lifetime can stop evil when it's intent enough.

I loved this book. It was creepy and dark and the threat was carefully controlled and dished out by the author with a sparing intensity that was chilling. I, much like Annabelle, was totally committed to finding out why her father had been so out-of-his-mind paranoid, and the revelations were mind boggling as the truth slowly comes to light. Kudos to Gardner for her wicked, twisted psyche and her deft ability to translate that into imaginative works of macabre entertainment.

My only - small - complaints were that I had to kind of sit on my suspension of disbelief and force it to behave when it came to how much access Annabelle was given to the case. I found that a little implausible, but once I beat that suspension of disbelief into submission, I just enjoyed the ride. I also thought the final conflict was a little too convenient and a bit too many of the wild warren paths led to the same den, so to speak. The only thing that I really wish had been different, though, was I wish that the romance between Bobby and Annabelle had been given a bit more room to breathe, because I enjoyed their attraction. It was extremely subtle in developing, and have to admit, Bobby acted very professionally overall, but I read this under the impression that it was a romantic suspense novel, and that's not exactly true. I consider this a suspense thriller with a thread of romance in it. A tiny thread.

Overall though, this was an eminently enjoyable read that kept me wildly flipping pages well into the night until I had all the answers. Very well done. It's been quite some time since I've read a Lisa Gardner book, but after Hide I don't think I'll be staying away nearly so long ever again.