The Book:
Catch Me (Detective D.D. Warren #6) by Lisa Gardner
Published: February 2012 by Penguin
Torrie’s Rating:
★★★
The Plot (Goodreads):
Charlene Grant believes she is going to die. For the past few years, her childhood friends have been murdered one by one. Same day. Same time. Now she’s the last of her friends alive, and she’s counting down the final four days of her life until January 21.
Charlene doesn’t plan on going down without a fight. She has taken up boxing, shooting, and running. She also wants Boston’s top homicide detective, D. D. Warren, to handle the investigation.
But as D.D. delves deeper into the case, she starts to question the woman’s story. Instinct tells her that Charlene may not be in any danger at all. If that’s true, the woman must have a secret—one so terrifying that it alone could be the greatest threat of all.
How did Catch Me end?
Charlene believed that she was the only surviving sibling, but in reality her sister Abigail was alive. Her aunt had tried to save them both, but was only able to take Charlene away from her mother. Her other siblings (Rosalind and Carter) were killed by her mentally ill mother when they cried too much. Charlene had tried to save them and hide them from her mother, but once they were killed, she adopted their names as her middle name.
Abigail is the vigilante that is hunting and killing sex offenders. More importantly, Abigail is also Detective O. Abigail/Detective O has been killing Charlene’s friends so that Charlene will know what it feels like to be alone and lose those you love.
When Charlene’s gun is confiscated at Grovesnor PD, Abigail/Det. O switches Charlene’s .22 with the one Abigail/Det. O had been using to shoot the Sex Offenders. Det. O attempts to frame Charlene, but misses an important detail – Charlene’s gun had a Rosewood grip, and Det. D.D Warren had seen it previously. The gun tested by the ballistics expert that was a match for the sex offender crimes had a rubber grip, clearly the gun had been swapped in order to frame Charlene. By switching the guns, Det. O unknowing gets Charlene off the suspect list for her actual vigilante murder of an abusive father/husband.
Charlene realizes that her aunt is the 3rd target, not herself. After Charlene was rescued and started living with her aunt, her aunt tracked down her mother and found Abigail living with her in Colorado. The mother agrees to let Charlene live with her aunt as long as the aunt leaves Abigail and the mother alone. Otherwise the mother threatens with an elaborate story of an abusive boyfriend and that she will request custody of Charlene. That is the entire story that Abigail knows, and it set her on a path for revenge for being left behind. In reality, Aunt Nancy called the police as soon as she left Abigail and her mother.
Torrie’s Review:
When I finished this book 4 months ago (read almost the entire D.D. Warren series this summer) I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads. I’ve changed my rating to 3 stars here, because as I’ve written a review for all the books in the series, this has been the hardest to remember the ending of thus far. I’m assuming that if it isn’t memorable, then it isn’t all that impressive of a novel. I still trust my original 4 star rating, but I also think it’s important to differentiate great books and good books – all of which are still worth reading. As I reread/skimmed this book to rewrite the ending spoiler, I remembered how much I enjoyed it and considered returning to 4 stars, but ultimately, I do think it’s the least memorable in the D.D. Warren series. It is still worth a read though!
Meet Guest Reviewer by Torrie Lewine
