View source for Never Tell by Lisa Gardner

{{infobox1
|title=Never Tell
|author=Lisa Gardner
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's the sort of book which you pick up thinking that you'll read bits of it each evening and perhaps spend a bit longer on it over the weekend.  Then you start it - and have to finish it within twenty four hours.  Highly recommended.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=416
|publisher=Century
|date=February 2019
|isbn=978-1780897714
|website=https://www.lisagardner.com/books/
|cover=1780897715
|aznuk=1780897715
|aznus=1780897715
}}

Evie Carter's husband was shot dead in his own home and she was found with the gun in her hands.  Was this a domestic dispute which had got out of hand?  Was it pregnancy hormones running rampant?  Detective D D Warren recognised Evie immediately.  It might have been sixteen years ago, but there's no mistaking the teenager who had accidentally shot and killed her father: 'a tragic accident' everyone said, as there was no doubt about the love the two had for each other.  D D had no worries at the time, but just how many gun accidents can one woman have - or is Evie about to get away with murder again?

In the intervening years there had been a father figure in Evie's life - criminal defence lawyer Dick Delaney.  He'd looked after her interests the first time around and he's the first person she turns to now.  There's no point in wasting her phone call ringing her mother: Mr Delaney will tell her.  Evie half suspects that there might be something between the two.  Delaney soon has Evie out on bail: there was enough of a delay between the shots which killed Conrad and the ones which Evie pumped into his laptop to make it feasible that Evie was not the killer.  It's up to D D Warren to solve the case.

Warren has a confidential informant, Flora Dane.  Flora's well known - for reasons which she wishes had never happened.  She was kidnapped and raped and held prisoner for 472 days and she's still trying to come to terms with being a survivor.  Her father died when she was young but there's a father figure in her life too: Samuel Keynes of the FBI.  He's the man she told the story to after her rescue and she swore that she would tell the story only once, but she's having doubts about that now.  She's seen pictures of Conrad Carter and she recognises him: whilst she was held prisoner she was taken to a bar one night and introduced to this man by her captor, Jacob Ness.  Was there more to Carter than the police - or Evie Carter, realised?

When I started this book I was planning on reading it over about a week.  Once I started there was no way that was going to happen: I finished it in less than twenty-four hours because I ''had'' to know what happened.  This might be the sixth novel in the Detective D D Warren series but I had no problems with reading it as a standalone.  There's enough background to bring you up to date but not so much that regular readers get bored.  Characterisation is superb: there's a wonderful contrast between Evie Carter and Flora Dane despite their similarities: because of the trauma both have suffered they're damaged and struggle with relationships and they have trust issues.  Both are determined women but they're still very different personalities.

The plot is a cracker.  From very early on I ''knew'' who was behind Conrad Carter's death.  It was obvious and everything I read confirmed that I was right.  I was wrong: I never even considered the killer.  Now ''that'' is skill and this was one very good read.  Even a couple of days after finishing the book I'm still thinking about some of the characters, which shows just how involved you get in a book as good as this one.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Another of our reviewers was equally blown away by Gardner's  [[The Neighbour by Lisa Gardner|The Neighbor]].

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[[Category: Thrillers]]