Three women: Evelyn Carter, the prime suspect in her husband’s murder; D.D. Warren, the detective on the case; and Flora Dane, a woman who was horrendously victimized several years prior to the events in the book. The latter two join up to solve the case of the Evelyn’s apparently slam-dunk murder rap. They believe Evelyn even though she did confess to killing her father in a similar way when she was 16.

I’ve read Gardner’s books before and been so-so about them, but this one is better for some reason. They’ve always been a bit on the graphic side of fem-jeop for me (females in jeopardy) but this one had some rather enlightening aspects.

The book opens with the shooting scene itself but the whole picture is not clear. It “looks like” the pregnant Evelyn Carter shot her husband three times before putting a dozen bullets in his computer, but … why? Was she talking to her own head or was her mother there? And later it turns out there are timing problems. This is a real who-done-it.

*******
Never Tell
by Lisa Gardner
2019 / 414 pages
read by Kirsten Potter – 11h 44m
rating: A / crime / procedural
*******

Then there are chapters dealing with the background of Flora Dane who was the victim of another crime by a man now deceased. She recognized the victim of this crime from a photo somewhere and realizes she has to reveal more than she has. (Dane has been a character in prior Gardner novels.)

Although some backstory continues to thread its way through the story, it mostly turns to the work of the detectives actually solving the crime while also showing the point of view of the other women as they go through their days.

The plot has plenty of twists and turns but a warning is also in order because although the details are not too graphic, the thrust of crimes is fem-jeop (females in jeopardy) but the females here are also the heroines so it worked out for me.

Overall, I suppose the plot was fairly predictable overall, but it was quite twisty and surprising in the details. In other words, I pretty much guessed who-done-it early on, but how and why had to be revealed.

The characters and narration were particularly good but the writing was mediocre.

D.D. Warren has appeared in the 10 prior books of this series I’ve read a few of them and I’ll likely read another one, but it might be awhile.