The reasoning why violence occurs can be directly related to what one observes as they mature. For others, violence may be instinctual or dispositional. In “Live to Tell,” Lisa Gardner, author of the D.D. Warren series, explores that exact subject, only to shock and awe readers with every riveting page.
Readers are entranced by a storyline that travels among three women — Boston detective and protagonist D.D. Warren, Victoria Oliver and Danielle Burton.
There are plenty of murder-mysteries that readers will love or hate based on plots, characterization and development. However, in the case of “Live to Tell,” Gardner creates a plot focused on the lives of child psychopaths and those affected by the outcomes of their behavior.
Gardner does not shy away from her descriptions of how adult and grotesque these children can be, and when readers come to find that some of these children come from good, wholesome families, readers become more perturbed by the subject matter.
On a blind date, Warren is interrupted. Before being presented with the news, Warren comes to the realization that her personal life will always be secondary to her profession. Warren is advised of a family slaughter that is committed by the father who was undergoing financial woes. The father barely survives, and when another family murder-suicide plot occurs, Warren begins to suspect foul play.
Meanwhile, readers come to know Danielle, who cannot help but remember her own traumatic experience from childhood. She was the sole survivor after her father murdered each of her family members before turning the gun on himself. Now, Danielle provides for troubled youth as a psychiatric nurse in a children’s ward.
Similarly, there is a dark undertone in Victoria’s story. As a young divorcee and single mother, Victoria is at wits end with her young son Evan. But Evan is not like most children. Evan shares something all too familiar with two of the children from the murdered families — he, like them, is capable of violent and erratic behavior.
One might believe that children with such conduct are often the outcome of brutality in their own homes, however, Gardner weaves an interesting two-story plot through the eyes Warren which demonstrates how that line is blurred.
Warren is a necessary voice in this book. However, her characterization is not well progressed as you might observe with Victoria or Danielle. But, only through the eyes of Warren can readers see what is happening in an unbiased way as she presents the evidence scene by scene, no matter how disturbing.
Gardner does a marvelous job at building the story like a home. The readers enter, working their way through the chapters, only to find that those chapters, like a home, open new doors with passages that lead elsewhere. Even though readers may feel they have it all figured out, Gardner is full of surprises.
Rating: W W W W
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