My, oh my! Lisa Gardner had me scratching my head time and again as I read Hide, the second in her D.D. Warren mystery thriller series. Where do I start? Do I start with the six mummified corpses discovered in an underground hideaway on the grounds of the abandoned Mattapan State Hospital for the mentally ill? Do I start with Annabelle, the girl whose necklace is around the neck of one of the unfortunate victims? “Annabelle,” now an adult, is very much alive. Whose body wears the necklace? Who killed those girls? Is he still out there somewhere killing other young girls?
Bobby Dodge, still reeling from his last case as a Boston police sniper, is now a detective with the Massachusetts State Police. He receives a call from his old pal and ex-girlfriend, Sergeant D.D. Warren of Boston P.D. requesting his assistance on a case. Don’t ask questions or listen to the police scanner. Just get here. STAT. What he sees in that chamber calls to mind another case and another victim. Has his worst nightmare returned?
Annabelle Granger sees her name in the paper as one of the victims, and she knows she must go to the police. She has been on the run her whole life. When she was five, her father met her at the door with packed suitcases, and her family moved from Boston to Florida. They changed their names. This happened every few years. It happened so often that Annabelle was always looking over her shoulder. She never knew whom to trust. She didn’t even know her real name. The strangest thing was that she didn’t even know what they were running from.
Annabelle, the name she identifies with most, decides to stay in Boston. It is the last stop after many moves. She has multiple locks on her doors. She has a dog. She practices martial arts. But who is she? She inserts herself into the case, feeling she has an invested interest. She was declared dead, after all. Bobby, as we learned in the first book, Alone, is susceptible to vulnerable, beautiful women who just happen to be central figures in his cases. Does this happen in real life? Maybe, maybe not, but it certainly adds a tinge of romantic tension to Ms. Gardner’s fiction. Drama too, and that doesn’t make D.D. happy. No siree. I found myself feeling a bit foggy on the details of that previous case, which is mentioned not infrequently in Hide. But there are enough reminders for it to make sense to me and enable me to connect the dots somewhat.
That’s not saying that I figured the whole thing out. Not by a long shot! I was constantly wondering what the heck Annabelle’s father had them running from, or if perhaps he was really a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The author did a fantastic job sowing seeds of doubt here, there, and everywhere. There are a number of characters that are bad guys, but none is THE bad guy. There are several red herrings, and even when I did consider the persons who were actually dangerous, I could never be sure, because there were so many twists. The bottom line: TRUST NO ONE.
Annabelle is an enigma. She’s been through a lot. She seems to not know who she is, and who can blame her? Yet, she functions. She runs her own home-based business. On the surface, she seems self-sufficient, but she is frightened and alone. Will she go it alone, or will she let herself trust Bobby?
This book is billed as “Detective D.D. Warren #2.” There is much more of D.D. in this story than in book one, but it is still very much Bobby Dodge’s show. This is Bobby’s first case as a detective, and while he has a lot to learn, he has good instincts, other than letting himself have feelings for a woman who’s a key part of the case. D.D. seems to be a hard-core cop. She’s all business. I’d like to know what’s under that tough exterior. We know that she and Bobby tried and failed to have a relationship. I do like observing the interplay between Bobby and D.D. and the unease that lies beneath the surface of their interactions.
I also found it interesting that Ms. Gardner chose to write Annabelle’s chapters in first person and the police procedural sections in third person. I believe she deliberately sets Annabelle’s experience apart from that of the detectives who are tasked with solving the case. Rather than finding this bothersome, I actually liked it; in fact, I hardly noticed it most of the time because it felt quite natural.
So – how do I conclude this? I could go on and on, but I don’t want to give away any more of the plot. Parts of it are a little bit over the top, but I guess that’s why it’s called fiction. I could rave for days about this book, but your time would be better spent reading the book! Seek out Hide. You won’t be sorry!
5 stars