Read Never Tell A Novel A DD Warren and Flora Dane Novel Lisa Gardner Books

Product details Series A D.D. Warren and Flora Dane Novel (Book 10) Hardcover 416 pages Publisher Dutton (February 19, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1524742082

Never Tell A Novel A DD Warren and Flora Dane Novel Lisa Gardner Books Reviews

• I'm giving this crime thriller five big stars because it really was an amazing read. I'm not normally a reader who enjoys multi-points of view but I gladly made an exception in this case. Told by three different women who exhibit strengths to admire, this story kept me riveted to the page the entire time. D.D. Warren is a police officer who isn't afraid to allow civilians to give her a helping hand with a difficult case. Flora Dane is the survivor of a horrific period of abduction and torture who fights every day to remain a survivor, never a victim. Evie Carter has been keeping secrets from her husband and what she finds when she arrives home after work one day means she will never have the chance to be totally honest with him.
  
  This book kept my interest focused on the book from first page to last. The characters in this story are written to be real people and that's sometimes a hard thing for authors to do. The information necessary to provide the solution to the crimes is revealed in natural ways so that it feels as if someone is actually finding the information in real time. The investigative forays into the dark web were fascinating to me because I have absolutely no idea of how those things work. Lisa Gardner is doing a masterful job of handling the characterization of Flora Dane. Her character could go oh, so very wrong, but Gardner hasn't let that happen. I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series.
  
  Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for an eGalley of this novel.
• NEVER TELL is a grim, but gripping story in which several plots intersect.
  A woman who killed her father in a shotgun accident at the age of
  16 and was considered not guilty of murder, now 16 yrs later, appears to have killed her husband
  in another shooting incident. Now this woman, Evie, says she was not the one who killed her father.
  She now claims she and her mother used that cover story to preserve the
  image of her father from having committed suicide. So who killed her father?
  Did she kill her father? Has she now killed her husband?
  And who was her husband? On the surface he was a very personable window
  salesman, but he has no past, no relatives and never gets beyond superficial
  relationships with people. After his death, it turns out he has hidden cash
  and phony driver’s licenses. A mystery man. Perhaps a bad man.
  DD Warren has a confidential informant, Flora Dane. Flora was abducted
  and held in sexual bondage by a long distance truck driver for 472 days. Although
  she was eventually freed by the FBI, her head is not right. She is seriously damaged
  psychologically. The only way she can keep going is by helping other people
  struggling to overcome awful experiences. Not a happy life, but it keeps her
  sane - for the most part.
  DD Warren finds Flora helpful as a CI, but she also knows Flora is a loner,
  somewhat of a vigilante and reckless at times. But Flora is very useful and DD
  cannot just ignore her. Flora is becoming an important figure in this series.
  Then there is Kimberly Quincy, the FBI agent who led the raid that freed
  Flora, who is once again involved in Flora’s case because there were apparently
  other women who were abducted/killed by Jacob Ness, the man who held
  Flora in bondage. This is still another thread in this complex story.
  NEVER TELL is complicated and sordid. But how can you not finish a story so
  compelling with so many intriguing subplots?
  Lisa Gardner is outstanding.
  
  Fred Dimond
• This is a story that pulls you in, confuses you while simultaneously keeps you searching for something obvious to clue you in, but never allows you to decipher the obvious and not so obvious answer to the questions, some of which are verbalized and some of which remain forever a mystery. Through it all, you keep reading....like the story, you keep plowing ahead.
• Read this book! I love Lisa Gardner but I was disappointed by her last novel, Look For Me, so I am very happy to report that this book is a great read. This novel is fast paced and fascinating. Right away we meet Evie who is quickly arrested for her husband’s murder. That of course brings in D.D. to investigate. Our third POV is Flora, our survivor and CI, who remembers the dead husband from her time as a kidnapped victim. To further complicate matters Evie first met D.D. at a crime scene when her father was killed.
  
  Evie is a great narrator. She is smart and caring so as a reader we are confused as to why she is holding the murder weapon as the story opens. Ever so slowly we start to understand her and what she has done.
  
  D.D. is her usual hard charging self but even more so in this novel. The pace is quick as she works this case and its ramifications. There is a brief cameo by Ms. Kimberly Quincy, which is really great only because of the interaction with D.D.
  
  Flora really starts to shine in this book. I thought the beginning was slow and I was annoyed by the long rehash of her backstory but it quickly starts to make sense. She does a great job moving the story forward and holding her own. I am looking forward to seeing more of her evolving story next time.
  
  This was a quick paced story that I did not want to put down. Lisa Gardner can be very graphic and paint a really horrible picture with her criminals but this book was pretty tame for her. We did have some rehash of Flora’s abduction but I appreciated it being less graphic than she can be. Personally I enjoy the who done it more than I enjoy being in the perp’s head. I do wish it had been more twisty as I enjoy her plotting so much. I found it very obvious but that did not get in my way of enjoying the story. I can’t wait for the next one!
• Lisa Gardner has gotten....better. But better than what? She was already a fantastic author. This book though, all I can say is that she raised the bar on herself.
  Never Tell grabs your gut and it grabs your brain. And it squeezes.
  The writing is seamless and stark. The empathy it elicits is scary. I didn't tear up until the end. Even then I didnt know if it was from sorrow or gratefulness.
  Thank you, LG.