The Neighbor

April 20, 2009
In bestseller Gardner's gripping 11th thriller, Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren, last seen in 2007's Hide
, looks into the curious disappearance of Sandra Jones, a sixth-grade social studies teacher, from her South Boston home: Sandra's keys and purse were on the kitchen counter, nothing was disturbed, and her four-year-old daughter, Ree, to whom she was devoted, was asleep upstairs. The missing woman's reporter husband, Jason, becomes an immediate suspect because he refuses to answer questions and appears to have destroyed evidence. As a media frenzy envelopes the case, Warren's investigation reveals the couple's life as anything but perfect or normal. Full of inventive twists, this highly entertaining novel delivers a shocking solution as well as a perfectly realized sense of justice. Fans will appreciate the deft way Gardner weaves in a key character from 2008's Say Goodbye
.

June 1, 2009
Gardner's ("Say Goodbye") new suspense novel intertwines several "ripped from the headline" themes. Sandra Jones is a pretty, blonde, 23-year-old schoolteacher who's gone missing. Her husband, Jason, claims to have returned home late at night to find their four-year-old daughter asleep in her bed and his wife nowhere to be found. When Boston detective sergeant D.D. Warren arrives on the scene, she finds a house that is almost a fortress and a husband who seems to be more concerned with protecting his secrets than with finding his wife. As the case explodes in the press, the police race against time. Was Jason responsible for Sandra's disappearance? Or was it the convicted sex offender down the street? Or someone else altogether? VERDICT Gardner's compelling narrative keeps her readers guessing, and her latest is sure to appeal to fans of Linwood Barclay's domestic thrillers. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/09.]Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2009
Boston police detective D. D. Warren returns in another suspenseful and stylish mystery. A pretty schoolteacher vanishes from her home, leaving behind a young daughter and a husband who doesnt seem all that broken up over his wifes disappearance. The first question Warren has to answer is, Was the woman abducted, or did she simply leave? But soon it becomes apparent that her departure was not voluntary, and the suspects begin to mount up: the not-so-grieving husband, who seems to be hiding some pretty big secrets; a neighbor who happens to be a registered sex offender; one of the victims students, a boy who might have some misguided feelings for the victim; even the womans estranged father, who wont win any prizes for personality or compassion. But, through narrative passages written in the victims voice, the author shows us that the woman herself is deeply troubled and is perhaps not quite the innocent victim she appears to be. This is certainly Gardners most complex novel, and it will be a definite treat for her fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)