236. Alone by Lisa Gardner

Alone by Lisa Gardner (US) - (Canada)
D.D. Warren, #1

Pages: 451
Ages: 18+
Finished: Oct. 19, 2011
First Published: 2005
Publisher: Bantam
Genre: mystery, thriller
Rating: 4/5



First sentence:

He'd put in a fifteen-hour shift the night the call came in.

Acquired: I was visiting relatives and borrowed this from my sister.

Reason for Reading: I am reading this series but started with book #3, since my sister had the first book it was the perfect opportunity to catch up with the series.

Having read books 3-5 of this series it was a little strange going back to the first book as D.D. Warren is only a very minor character who is only introduced halfway through the book.  Obviously, this book did not start out to be the "D.D. Warren" series.  Instead the main character is Bobby Dodge, police sniper, who in the later books is D.D.'s partner.  Bobby is called out to an intense domestic scene where shots fired have been reported and he makes his first on the job kill.  The woman whose life he has saved turns out to be not only a woman in trouble but trouble herself.  Bobby is investigated by Internal Affairs to see if his shot was righteous but the dead man's affluent parents file a civil suit against him for murder.  While they also file against the widow for custody of the one grandchild whom they've accused of being mistreated by his mother.  Bobby gets wrapped up in the widow's life and finds himself embroiled in the middle of a complicated case where people close to the widow start to be violently killed off, one after another.

A very intricate plot with plenty of different angles from which to switch back and forth.  The character of Bobby is given a complete background and since having read other books in the series it was interesting to get to know him so much better.  A compelling story that deals with multiple themes: police procedural, SWAT teams, serial killer, child kidnapping and murder for hire.  All these rolled into one make for an entertaining, detailed plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat.  It was quite strange to find D.D. hardly fleshed out as a character though and it will be interesting to see how the second book plays out the situation so that D.D. becomes the star of the series by book 3, leaving Bobby as the second fiddle.  I would have enjoyed this even more if I hadn't read it out of order, something I try not to do too often with series.