Never Tell

NEVER TELL is raw, visceral, emotional, the sentences come at you like MP5 rounds, and features three incredible characters, D.D., Flora and Evie, who, alone, could carry any narrative. Together, they create a tsunami of a thriller. This may well be Gardner’s best work, and that is saying something.

I just finished NEVER TELL and loved it! Gardner beautifully captures the story of a young woman who survived a terrible trauma and is learning to live again by becoming a force-to-be-reckoned-with vigilante who assists D.D. in solving crimes while forming a support network for other survivors.

As always, Gardner’s research and insight are spot-on, and the many secrets and mysteries that unfold are unpredictable and thrilling.

I read all three of Lisa Gardner’s ‘Flora Dane’ books in compulsive one-sittings. Riveting, visceral suspense with strong, complex women and that often elusive commodity–justice. So, so good! I can’t wait to see where she takes Flora Dane next.

Lisa Gardner never disappoints! The twisty drama and nail-biting suspense are to be expected, but this author is a master at delving deep into human emotion. This book resonates on so many levels. An immensely absorbing and satisfying read.

I’ve been reading Lisa Gardner since she began writing, and her mastery of suspense continues to grow. The world she’s created, intersecting DD Warren, Kimberly Quincy and Flora Dane, only adds to the magnetism of her work, as each of these characters is rich and layered and intriguing. She was terrific when she began, and she only gets better with each story!

Three women. So many lies.

Boston Police Sergeant D. D. Warren and her confidential informant, Flora Dane, are back and working together to solve a case that begins with a pregnant wife, Evie, allegedly murdering her husband, Conrad. He was shot three times while sitting at his desk in his home office, but his laptop computer was also murdered — shot twelve times. When the police respond to a report of shots fired, they find Evie holding the gun. D. D. immediately recognizes Evie because sixteen years ago, when Evie was sixteen years old, she shot and killed her father, a brilliant theoretical mathematician and professor. Both Evie and her mother claimed that Evie accidentally shot her father while handling his new shotgun, so his death was ruled accidental.

For D.D., two gunshot deaths is two too many. Evie is immediately arrested for Conrad’s murder and arraigned.

Flora, who survived unspeakable crimes committed by her kidnapper and captor, immediately recognizes Conrad when she sees a tv news report about his death. She recalls a meeting in a bar between Conrad and her captor. Flora lives with survivor’s guilt and realizes that after her release she never sought Conrad out. She is determined to learn the connection between Conrad and her captor, and, hopefully, discover information about her captor’s other victims.

Lisa Gardner has constructed another mystery that keeps readers guessing until the very end. It is a multi-layered, elusive exploration of the underside of society — the dark web and the types of transactions entered into there, It is also a family drama — Evie discovers truths about her parents’ marriage, her father’s relationships with other faculty members, and gains a new appreciation of the extent of her mother’s capacity for melodramatic machinations in the name of family and love. In addition to the mysteries her characters investigate, Gardner explores the theme of motherhood and a mother’s instinct to protect her child. As D.D., federal agent Kimberly Quincy, Flora, and Keith, the amateur true crime sleuth Flora enlists to assist, peel away decades of lies and omissions among Evie’s family, they discover more and more secrets. And Evie realizes that her whole life has been founded on lies and deceit. As the book’s pace quickens and the tension heightens as D.D., et al. get closer to unraveling the truth, Gardner convincingly enhances the danger her characters face. Can they solve the mystery in time to save Evie and her unborn child? Will the truth finally empower Evie to live life on her own terms? Gardner proves again that she is a master at creating tightly constructed, driving mysteries that are also viscerally raw and chilling, yet deeply touching and emotionally satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.

The definition of the killer twist. Lisa Gardner never fails to impress. One of my all time favourite crime writers, this is a maximum 2 sittings read – it’ll be glued to your fingers. Amazing characters, and a great ending.

“Never Tell” by Lisa Gardner sets the tone for readers through grammar and construction, opening with a first person narrative by a woman. She talks to herself “I tell myself I’ve done nothing wrong.” She talks to readers, “and I finally notice what I should have noticed from the very beginning” Short choppy construction, brief sentences, and single word exclamations illustrate her rising panic, disbelief, and disassociation.
“No one home. Now I remember…Blood. Dark. Viscous. A spray, A pool”
The point of view shifts, but the short construction continues, adding to the overall atmosphere. Sargent Detective D. D. Warren, three of them, one target, silent, prepared to enter as they have done before. But then, there is a sudden and unanticipated shift.
Later, A woman has been arrested for shooting her husband, and Warren will be investigating the murder. This case is personal because Warren had investigated this woman previously. ”Seriously, how many shootings can one woman be involved with?”
Again the scene changes, now to a first person narrative by Flora who might have answers. She also talks directly to readers, sharing her traumatic background, her current outlook, and her opinioned thoughts.
The investigation starts at a predictable pace, examining the crime scene, collecting statements, and analyzing evidence, but nothing about the murder of Conrad Carter by his wife Evelyn is usual or normal. There are lots of questions, and some immediate answers, but those answers may have been found too easily. “What would motivate a wife to kill her husband?” Warren suspects that something else is going on here.
Gardner continues with the narrative alternating points of view chapter by chapter. The construction maintains the tense mood while different versions of past and current events are revealed. Readers get to know the participants, their troubling backgrounds, their disturbing histories, and their unusual connections to each other. The past holds secrets that characters would rather the world did not know. The tale takes several dramatic turns along the way, and readers wonder who is truthful, who is deceptive, and who is guilty. Actually, no one is innocent, no one is truthful, and no one is left unscathed.
Gardner took what appeared on the surface to be the tragic but uncomplicated case of a wife killing her husband and developed it into a tumultuous tangle of lies, deception, fraud, and murder. The librarian at the Raymond Public Library recommended that I read this book. She was absolutely correct; I could not put it down until the end, and Evie summed it up well,
“My husband is gone. We loved each other. We created a home together. We made a life together. And we lied, and we lied, and we lied.”

A great murder mystery that solves not 1 but 2 murders and the reason they happened to. Loved it

Many people say they “couldn’t put a book down” but, this one is truly special because, I truly couldn’t put it down. When it finally came to it’s twisty, fiery end I still had trouble breathing.

I thought that the books were full of suspense and very thrilling as well as page turning as well as gripping