Tuesday 18 August 2015

Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner

This was my first Lisa Gardner and it certainly won't be my last. She really knows how to keep the story compelling to the very end.

Nicky is haunted by a girl called Vero. The two of them have conversations with each other all the time, or do they? Is it reality, a call from her subconscious or perhaps just hallucinations due to the complications of Nicky's traumatic brain injury?

Nicky comes to the attention of the local police when she is found hailing help by the side of the road and her car is found at the bottom of a ravine. At the scene of the accident she screams for Vero, so the hunt is on for the missing child.

When the police come up empty-handed they start to question not only the accident, they also question Nicky's sanity. Something just doesn't ring quite right for Wyatt and he starts taking a closer look at the husband, especially because Nicky has had multiple serious accidents in the last few months.

I really enjoyed the way Gardner kept the question about the identities very fluid throughout the book. Nothing is certain, and the reader is always second guessing who she might be. You automatically feel sympathy for Vero the child and Nicky the adult, regardless of whether they are in the past or present. For the victims of the abuse and the adult, who lives in sheer terror of the truth. Her own truth is so devastating she is literally falling apart bit by bit.

Although this is a Tessa Leoni mystery/case she doesn't really play a major role in this story. More like the sidekick to Wyatt. The two of them do get a wee bit closer, but overall she plays more of a secondary part in the book.
I have to admit it kept me riveted till the end.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

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