Categories Book Review, Lisa Gardner, Reviews with Spoilers

Lisa Gardner | Hide (Detective D.D. Warren #2)

by Torrie1 Comment on Lisa Gardner | Hide (Detective D.D. Warren #2)

The Book: 

Hide (Detective D.D. Warren #2) by Lisa Gardner
Published: January 30, 2007 by Bantam Books

Torrie’s Rating:

★★★★

The Plot (Goodreads):

You have good reason to be afraid. . . . 

It was a case that haunts Bobby Dodge to this day—the case that nearly killed him and changed his life forever. Now, in an underground chamber on the grounds of an abandoned Massachusetts mental hospital, the gruesome discovery of six mummified corpses resurrects his worst nightmare: the return of a killer he thought dead and buried. There’s no place to run. . . . Bobby’s only lead is wrapped around a dead woman’s neck. Annabelle Granger has been in hiding for as long as she can remember. Her childhood was a blur of new cities and assumed identities. But what—or who—her family was running from, she never knew. Now a body is unearthed from a grave, wearing a necklace bearing Annabelle’s name, and the danger is too close to escape. This time, she’s not going to run. You know he will find you. . . . 

The new threat could be the dead psychopath’s copycat, his protégé—or something far more terrifying. Dodge knows the only way to find him is to solve the mystery of Annabelle Granger, and to do that he must team up with his former lover, partner, and friend D. D. Warren from the Boston P.D. But the trail leads back to a woman from Bobby’s past who may be every bit as dangerous as the new killer—a beautiful survivor-turned-avenger with an eerie link to Annabelle. From its tense opening pages to its shocking climax, Hide is a thriller that delves into our deepest, darkest fears. Where there is no one to trust. Where there is no place left to hide. 

Click here for book spoilers for Hide
Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read Hide, I suggest you turn back now.

Annabelle’s family was being stalked by her paternal uncle, Tommy. Her father took the family into hiding to run from him after he killed her maternal grandparents. Their first move, to Boston, was possible with much help from her father’s mentor, who helped him get a new job under a fake name. In Boston, Tommy found them, and began to leave gifts for Annabelle, which drove the father to move them for a second time.

After leaving Boston, Annabelle’s father returns when he hears her friend has been kidnapped, and her father attempts to kill Tommy (his own brother). He severely injures him, but does not succeed in killing him. Tommy has severe brain trauma and ends up a patient in the mental hospital. He overcomes the trauma and becomes and UPS Delivery driver – he never once follows Annabelle or her family to their other moves outside of Boston. It appears that Annabelle’s father was simply very cautious and moved them often out of fear and not from particular triggers. As a UPS driver, Tommy constantly requests a new route hoping to one day find Annabelle’s home. He is lucky and becomes her driver and develops a friendly relationship with Annabelle and her dog under the name Ben.

During the investigation, Detective D.D. Warren and Bobby Dodge meet Charlie Marvin, an old man who says he used to work at the mental hospital. The end of the book reveals that Charlie Marvin is actually Christopher Eola, a prior patient at the mental hospital from a wealthy family.

As the book closes, Annabelle is packing and preparing to hide when Charlie/Christopher shows up at her apartment and corners her. He attempts to kill her, but her friend the UPS driver shows up and she thinks she will be saved. Ben explains that he is her Uncle Tommy. Bobby Dodge and D.D. Warren show up just in time to save Annabelle.

The books ends with Annabelle and Bobby going out on a date.

Torrie’s Review:

Lisa Gardner always does a fantastic job of blending old secrets with new crimes, and this book is no exception. She managed to really keep me guessing throughout the book, and while I was able to pick out who wasn’t being entirely truthful, I wasn’t able to determine what the truth actually was. This book jumped around a bit with stories from many different decades, but Lisa Gardner did a good job of keeping things organized and clear.

I felt that including Catherine Gagnon from the first D.D. Warren book, Alone, was unnecessary and dragged a bit, but those that enjoyed Catherine’s character from Alone will enjoy seeing her and her games again.

We're trying to grow our mailing list. If you join us and stick around, you will automatically be entered into two giveaways as a token of our thanks. And that's just the start!

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *