Say Goodbye to bedtime while you read this book!

“Oh what a crazy web we weave when at first we try to deceive.” I am not sure who I am paraphrasing here but I think it sums up Lisa Gardner’s newest offering “Say Goodbye.” Ms. Gardner is another author who I rarely miss. Her thrillers are exactly that. I didn’t want to put this one down even to write a blog post. I resented having to make dinner or for that matter go to work. I just wanted to find out what happens next.

The story brings back 3 of Ms. Gardner’s favorite characters, Pierce Quincy, Raine Conner, and Pierce’s daughter Kimberly Quincy. All three are in law enforcement, Pierce and Kimberly are FBI while while dad and Raine are great supports.

Besides being a page turning, suspense filled, leaving me guessing to almost the end, who dunnit, “Say Goodbye” also dives into the age old mother question: “To work or not to work.” Kimberly is excited and afraid of the little being growing inside her and what sacrifices will have to be made like giving up bad guy chasing and 20 hour days. Her husband Mac, who we met in “The Killing Hour”, has a great offer to work from the Savannah office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation which would mean Kimberly would have to change what she is doing or quit altogether. Her mother died violently by the same hands that killed her sister. Her father is emotionally stunted even though he loves her very much. She feels very alone as she goes through the pregnancy and deals with the issues of her impending motherhood and whether she will be a total screw up as a mom.

While all this personal angst is going on a killer is on the loose in Atlanta stalking and killing prostitutes. Or is there? Mr. Dinhcara is one of the most creepy killers and tortures I have read in a really long time. He is chilling because he is very human. We go through his life and see how he has become what he is and I think it strikes a chord in the reader because there isn’t a household that hasn’t experienced trauma or dysfunction and it is just by the grace of God that most of us survive or childhoods intact and we aren’t all a bunch of killers. This novel is NOT romantic, it isn’t comfortable. Ms. Gardner delves into the world of child abduction, rape, pornography and while I never felt it was exploitative it is graphic and given some of the headlines in the last few years all too possible. There is nothing super human or preternatural about her villain. He could be living near anyone of us and we probably wouldn’t really notice and that is what makes this novel all the more scary, threatening and ok, good. Up to this point I have not given just too much away about the story, almost nothing in fact but I will tell you this so you can sleep while you read. It ends ok……almost.

If you like a good thriller and you are worn out by the same cookie cutter killers of Patterson, Jackson, and Kellerman buy “Say Goodbye” and you will be saying goodbye to a few hours of sleep until you get to the end.

Other books featuring the Quincys:

The Killing Hour

Gone

The Next Accident

The Third Victim