Synopsis: Detective D.D. Warren is hard to surprise. But a lone woman outside D.D.'s latest crime scene shoks her with a remarkable propsition: Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant believes that she will be murdered in four days. And she wants Boston's top detective to handle her death investigation.
Charlie tells a chilling story: Each year at 8:00 pm on January 21, a woman has died. The victims have been childhood best friends from a small town in New Hampshire; the motive remains unknown. No only one friend, Charlie, remains to count down her final hours.
But as D.D. quickly learns, Charlie Gran doesn't plan on going down without a fight. By her own admission, the girl can outshoot, outfight and outrun anyone in Boston, which begs the question; is Charlie the next victim or the perfect perpetrator? As D.D. tracks a vigilate gunman who is killing pedophiles in Boston, she must also delve into the murders of Charlie's friends, racing to find answers before the next gruesome January 21 anniversary. Is Charlie truly in danger, or is she hiding a terrifying secret that may turn out to be the biggest threat of all?
This is my first Lisa Garnder. I thought I’d read one before, but I couldn’t find it in my records so I don’t think I have. While I did like the story and the characters, I don’t think I’ll be picking up any more in the series. Maybe some older ones if I see them somewhere, but now I know D.D. ends up eschewing her life to take up the oh so tired and traditional role of wife and mommy, it’s kind of a waste of time. I’m sure the author, her editor and her publisher think that adding these predictable storylines for their tough female cop will make her more identifiable to the masses, but for me it’s a miss. Every time D.D. went home to coo and gurgle and lactate I went into skim mode. Just not my cuppa.
The crimes, though, were fascinating as was Charlie, aka Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant. Luckily we get a lot of time with her and a lot of the story is told from her perspective. She’s tough, haunted and incredibly damaged, but wants to fight and bring justice to the person who killed her friends and wants her next. The parts about Tulip, the dog that wasn’t her dog, shone some light into what kind of a person Charlie could become if her demons could rest. While the story unfolded many suspects came under suspicion in my head. Her mother, her sister or even Charlie herself could have two personalities in there, one of them being the killer. At first the pedophile killer even seemed plausible, but then things started to unravel a bit. There were a lot of strange things happening and a lot of cops involved. Oh and the whole other storyline with Jesse and his vulnerability to possible predators on his online game. It got a bit tight in there.
Just before the killer is revealed in all identities, I figured it had to be that person in the sense of that person’s relationship to Charlie, but not in that person’s other identity. It was a neat trick and I’m a bit ashamed of myself for not being more suspicious and open to all the possibilities.
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