Alone

I don't know what to make of Alone. While fast paced, exciting and engaging, the characters are out of step. Detective D.D. Warren is one of the nastiest, angriest cops ever especially to sniper Bobby Dodge and to kidnap victim Catherine. Seems she jumps into action without listening and thinking.

Catherine is one of the most bizarre and unbelieveable characters ever. She doesn't know how to care for her young son, Nate but shows a very loving and protective side to him at times. She doesn't know how to create her own independent bank accounts but knows how to set up her abusive husband to be killed. She doesn't leave a nightmare marriage and family life because she is afraid of being poor!

But... I did read it all the way through.

Immediately after finishing Alone I started on Hide (it was that much fun) and though I knew these were books 1 & 2 of a series, I didn’t know they they were connected so tightly. I won’t go so far as to say they’re one long story arc, but there is enough continuation of the first story that I’d recommend reading Alone first. That and there are spoilers for Alone in Hide. It is interesting that these are billed as D.D. Warren books, when I think that the first one wasn’t really intended as a start of a series, and the second, if it is, features Bobby Dodge, not D.D. It seems like the D.D. books took off later and these were tacked on just because she’s in them and that if no other stories focus on Bobby, you can’t really show more name a series after him with only 2 books. Awkward explanation, I agree, but that’s my perception.

In my previous experience with a D.D. Warren book, I didn’t much care for her, but I did like the way the victim was portrayed. She was complex and her situation was tangled in the extreme. We have that type of story again with both of these books. Catherine I found to be a really interesting ‘victim’. She’s got enough ambiguity and doubt clinging to her that it’s difficult to use that term, but it does apply and it’s not hard to see how her traumatic experience would warp her personality into what she became. I didn’t like her, but I did sympathize. Gardner builds a lot of doubt about the circumstances for the bulk of the readers’ sympathy to shift to Bobby. Used to being behind the gun, he gets himself into a lot of other people’s crosshairs and it’s mostly him you worry about.

We meet Cat again in Hide, but she’s not the focus for that book. Instead we get another woman trying to hold herself together after a disturbing childhood. Annabelle is way more sympathetic than Cat even though what she suffered wasn’t nearly as horrible. Instead we’ve got a woman so scared of being known to people that she continues to live under the alias her father selected for their last desperate flight to escape an enemy he’s never explained to her. She’s strong and capable, but those skills are built on fear, paranoia and complete uncertainty of what or who her enemy actually is.

In both books we have a good variety of suspects who come to light one at a time. There are a lot of unknowns and it’s police work and investigation that gets results, not rabbit-out-of-a-hat forensics. It feels more desperate as a result. The changes from viewpoint to viewpoint are done well. Not too long or too short and the voices for Bobby and the two victims are distinct. There were a few clangy phrases (like ‘death investigators’) that I didn’t like, but not many. One of the characters in Hide got a little preachy about the implosion of the mental health system in the US, but because I agree with the rant, it didn’t bother me. Some details about ordinance and cars were wrong, too (a BMW 450i? I don’t think so.) and so better research is needed. Still, the overall stories are powerful enough to keep me reading Gardner’s books. Seems like she has a lot of them, so a lot to look forward to. show less

My 6P review

State Trooper Bobby Dodge is a sniper. Across the road from him, a man is pointing a gun towards his wife and child. He shoots. His nightmare begins. Has he just been manipulated into killing a man?

This was so much more than a mystery, it was a psychological roller-coaster too. It dragged a bit in the middle and I almost put the book down but persisted. It really took off in the second half.

Bobby Dodge was the main star of this story and I liked him. He made some terrible decisions but the author justified them through his eyes. He had so many insecurities that he needed to sort through and he also had to overcome his past. I thought his character grew really well throughout the story and I hope he doesn’t disappear in show more this series.

It just goes to show how much money can buy – freedom, cover-ups, protection and certain unsavoury services. The judge was awful and his wife was a wet dishcloth. Both added beautifully to the story.

Was Catherine a victim or a calculating and manipulative person? I like the fact that I’m still pondering this after having finished the book. She was certainly hard to read. At times I liked her and other times I hated her.

It was also interesting to find out what was actually wrong with Nathan (disgusting but interesting) and I’m glad it wasn’t Munchausen By Proxy. Was Catherine a bad mum as we are led to believe. or was she also a victim of circumstance? She wasn’t always there for Nathan but was this as a result of her terrible childhood abduction or was she suffering from post-natal depression or something more sinister?

This wasn’t really a DD Warren book as she only appears half way through and is really only a cameo appearance at best. Wearing stilettos was a bit hmmm? There are dress standards and these would be the most inappropriate shoe to wear.

My only real criticisms are: one - that Dodge would not be allowed to have any contact with the victim and witnesses whilst under investigation so this distracted me a bit from an otherwise great story. Oh and only in America! All the law-suits!! And two – dogs do not have rough tongues, if anything a lick from a dog would be smooth and wet.

I really liked the dog. I wish DD Warren took him as then he’d appear again in the series.

I’m looking forward to reading this series.

3.5 ⭐️ show less

It's obvious that Gardner has done her research for this exciting thriller. Bobby Dodge is a special forces trooper who is called to a domestic/hostage situation. He ends up killing the husband, but there's a lot more to the story. Is the wife the abusive one? What is wrong (medically) with the child? Also, the wife, Catherine, had been abducted and sexually abused when she was 12. How much does that situation have to do with what happens in the present?
An incredibly realistic suspense novel. No plot holes or characters acting with fuzzy motivations. Beautifully written, despite a tendency toward excessively relating conversations without using dialogue. It was almost impossible to tell who was a 'good guy' and who was a 'bad guy' (with show more two notable exceptions on either side). Just riveting. I couldn't put it down.
(And, like I said about the research: my husband is in law enforcement, and he gets irritated with a lot of books/movies/tv shows for inaccuracy. This book did not irritate him at all.) show less

Another really great page turner from Gardner. Quick witted and smart, and she doesn't fall back on recurring characters like a lot of writers, creating original thrillers every time out. Sniper Bobby Dodge kills Catherine Gagnon's husband when he barricades himself with them in a hostage situation. The wife, who suffered through an agonizing experience 25 years prior, held captive underground and abused, is suddenly being stalked by the very man who did that to her, having been released from prison. What follows is an awesome read, right up to the last page. Highly recommended.

Read: October 2017
Rating: 4/4 stars

The plot: The story begins with a police sniper, Bobby, doing his job and shooting to death a man who was threatening his wife and child with a gun. In the aftermath of this event, Bobby gets drawn into the lives of the wife – Catherine – and her child, as the situation becomes more complex.

Whilst Alone is the first book in this series, I actually read the third book (The Neighbour) several years ago and enjoyed it as a standalone story. I found that the most interesting part of Alone for me was the ‘is she or isn’t she?’ character of Catherine – is she a victim or is she the abuser? – at times both narratives appear plausible. The secondary plot involves Catherine’s past, and how the show more past could be coming back to haunt her.

Once I really got into the story, I read this book very quickly. Despite being the first book of the 'Detective DD Warren' series; Detective Warren is only a secondary character who barely appears on the page. This story was all about Bobby and Catherine and I liked the way the different threads of the plot tied together in the end. show less

A police sniper, a corrupt judge, a pedophile and his now adult victim, her four year old son: these are the players in Lisa Gardner’s psychological thriller, Alone. By the way, it’s as much psychological as thriller: a thinking reader’s mystery. (I see it as a film, shot in black and white, harsh lighting forcing sharp contrasts and sudden, brief close ups.)
Ms Gardner is able to maintain brutal suspense even while alternating points of view. The reader gets to know what everyone is thinking: this highly effective maneuvre pulls you into the story. You’re the omnipresent witness, seeing the plot unfold from all angles. But Ms Gardner doesn’t let you know how it’s going to play out until the end.

The characters (who weren’t show more pathological) were believably human and their mistakes understandable and forgivable.

7.5 Recommended to mystery and psychological drama fans.

CAVEAT I don’t enjoy the use of pedophile characters in fiction: in my opinion, it is gratuitous and inappropriate. show less