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Starred review from November 27, 2006
In bestseller Gardner's first-rate follow-up to Alone
(2005), Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a horrific crime scene in the middle of the night by fellow detective and ex-lover D.D. Warren. An underground chamber has been discovered on the property of a former Boston mental hospital containing six small naked mummified female bodies in clear garbage bags. A silver locket with one of the corpses, which may be decades old, bears the name Annabelle Granger. Later, a woman shows up at the Boston Homicide offices claiming to be Annabelle Granger. Her resemblance to Catherine Gagnon (whose life Bobby saved in Alone
) helps stoke a romance between her and Bobby both subtle and sizzling. The suspense builds as the police uncover links between patients at the hospital and long-ago criminal activities. Through expert use of red herrings, Gardner takes the reader on a nail-biting ride to the thrilling climax.

January 1, 2007
In Gardner's latest thriller, Boston Police Sgt. D.D. Warren hooks up with Massachusetts State Police Det. Robert Dodge (from "Alone") to investigate a long-abandoned underground cavern found on the grounds of the former Boston State Mental Hospital. The hospital had been shut down decades earlier, but the mummified bodies of six young girls are found belowground, recalling a previous case. Annabelle Granger has spent her life running, moving from city to city and adopting a new name every 18 months or so at her paranoid father's whim. Annabelle, a beautiful young woman who bears a striking resemblance to a previous victim, is thought to be one of the dead girls, until she strolls into the police station. Former hospital staff members and patients become the prime suspects in this fast-paced, twisty thriller. Annabelle's first-person perspective occasionally shifts to that of an omniscient narrator to give the reader more information than Annabelle has, but the introduction of a new, critical character toward the end is rather unsettling. Nevertheless, this gripping read is recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 10/1/06.]Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2006
Gardner fans look out: this one will take your breath away. Near the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital, a buried chamber is discovered. Inside are six bodies, one of which may be that of a girl who has been missing for two decades--the best friend of a woman, Annabelle, who has spent her childhood moving from city to city, from identity to identity, hiding from someone or something totally unknown to her. She's been safe for several years now, but a single act of bravery plunges her right back into a life of fear. This is a rich, complex tale that juggles a handful of mysteries at once. Who is the killer, and could it be someone connected with a notorious child murderer? Who or what was Annabelle's family running from? How did her father, a mathematician, know how to set up foolproof new identities? And why does an old sketch of a murder suspect look unsettlingly like Annabelle's father? Head and shoulders above anything else Gardner's written, this riveting novel represents the author at the height of her powers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)