Love You More by Lisa Gardner

Boston Police Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren and her partner, Massachusetts State Police Detective Bobby Dodge, are called to the scene of what initially appears to be a routine domestic disturbance turned deadly. However, it quickly becomes apparent there is nothing routine about the case.

Brian Darby lies dead on the floor of his kitchen, shot three times by his wife, who happens to be a Massachusetts State Trooper. Though Trooper Tessa Leoni shows obvious signs of having been beaten, D.D. is curious as to why Leoni went straight for her service revolver instead of trying something less lethal, like her taser or baton, first.

And she’ll have to keep wondering because Leoni isn’t talking, not even to help the police locate her six-year-old daughter, Sophie, who’s missing. Why wouldn’t a mother do everything in her power to help locate their missing child, D.D. wonders, unless they had something to do with it?

And with that setup Lisa Gardner puts into motion the runaway train that is Love You More, the fifth book in the D.D. Warren series.

D.D. is a tough cookie and a good detective, and Gardner has given D.D. her match in Tessa Leoni. As determined as D.D. is to get to the truth of how the shooting went down and where the missing child is, Leoni is equally determined to stay one step ahead of D.D. Why exactly is what both the reader and D.D. are left to discover. Rest assured, nothing is as it seems. Every time you think you’ve figured out how the puzzle fits together, Gardner dumps a whole new box worth of pieces onto the table and challenges you – and D.D. – to make sense of it.

As she’s amply demonstrated in her previous works, Gardner is a master of the psychological thriller. The story is presented via chapters that alternate between D.D.’s point of view and Leoni’s, and it’s a style which serves both the measured unveiling of the story and the tension building very well. It may sound like a cliche, but Love You More truly is a dictionary-definition example of a page turner, packed with action, plot twists, and cliffhanger chapter endings. If you’re looking for an explosive read that pits two strong, intelligent, determined women against each other (or are they?), you’ll love Love You More

Love You More is available from Bantam (ISBN: 978-0553807257).