Love You More by Lisa Gardner

Love You More by Lisa Gardner
Published by Bantam Books ISBN 978-0-553-80725-7
Hardcover $26 356 pages

I'm not big on thrillers or "women in jeopardy" books or movies (sorry, my friends who like Lifetime movies- you know who you are), but Lisa Gardner's book I Love You More had me tearing through the pages to get to the end of a crackling story.

Tessa Leoni, a Massachusetts state trooper is accused of murdering her husband and probably her missing daughter. Boston police detective D.D. Warren and her partner Bobby are assigned the case. D. D. herself may be pregnant, so finding the missing six-year-old girl hits home with her.

By all accounts, Leoni is a devoted mother; why would she kill her daughter? As Warren digs deeper, she finds that the dead man had a big gambling problem. Is this related to his death? Warren discovers that as a teen Leoni had killed a man who she claimed had tried to rape her, did she kill again?

I enjoyed how the author slowly unraveled the mysteries of the story, giving the reader morsels of information a little bit at a time. Warren is certain that Leoni murdered her daughter, and when Leoni offers to take them to where the body is buried, the resulting scene is full of tension, and the story really takes off from there. It is action-packed.

This is a book that is a real page-turner, with an interesting storyline. The two female protagonists are fascinating, especially Leoni. She is one tough cookie, and more than a match for the veteran detective. Their scenes together are very dramatic, and would be great roles for two actresses. (I kept seeing Angelina Jolie in my head as Tessa in the movie version.)

This is the fourth novel featuring D.D. Warren, but it reads just as well as a stand-alone. It did encourage me to go read the previous novels, Live to Tell, Hide, Alone and The Neighbor. If you like mystery/thrillers with terrific female characters, this one is for you.

rating 4 of 5 stars