Hide

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.

April 30, 2007
Reed will find lots of work in the audio whodunit world. She has a low, slightly gravelly voice that fits the genre well. She distinguishes characters without trying to be them and helps a wacky protagonist become a believable character. The gruesome story begins with the discovery of the bodies of six young girls who are bagged, tagged and shelved in an old underground chamber in the yard of an abandoned Boston insane asylum. Bobby Dodge (returning from Gardner’s Alone) is called to the crime scene. Gardner offers up numerous plausible suspects, suspense and violence, and lots of requited and unrequited love. The book is longer than it needs to be, somewhat repetitive and has a hokey ending with a murderer who appears out of nowhere. But Hide is still an enjoyable thriller and a well-read listen. Simultaneous release with the Bantam hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 27).