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Love You More    by Lisa Gardner Amazon.com order for
Love You More
by Lisa Gardner
Order:  USA  Can
Bantam, 2011 (2011)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book

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* * *   Reviewed by Lyn Seippel

Lisa Gardner's Love You More, sixth in the Detective D.D. Warren series, begins with a murder. After her shift as a state trooper, Tessa Leoni faces her husband Brian Darby in their kitchen. Something terrible has happened and Brian is responsible. Moments later, he is murdered.

Tessa is a state trooper, but the crime happened in Boston, bringing Boston Police Detective D.D. Warren and state trooper Bobby Dodge together again to investigate. Leoni doesn't deny that she killed her husband, but her six-year-old daughter is missing. She wants D.D. and Bobby to pull out all stops to find her. The murder investigation will waste time, especially since Tessa has confessed. Time that might save her child.

Tessa claims to be a battered wife, but it didn't take three shots in the chest to bring down her husband. D.D. picks apart the case and soon Tessa is believed to have killed her husband and her daughter. Desperate, an imprisoned Tessa makes her own plans to find Sophie. Despite her career choice, Tessa has plenty of reasons to be distrustful of police investigations.

D.D. realizes she is pregnant during the investigation. Her pregnancy offers an interesting subplot. Alternating voices of D.D. and Tessa offer both sides of the investigation. D.D. sees her shifting emotions and the stomach sickness as weaknesses. She's not sure she will ever be ready to be a mother. Leoni can't afford to show weakness.

This complex mystery/thriller twists its way to a breathless conclusion. Lisa Gardner's novels seem to be plot driven with complicated backstories, but she also creates characters who are believable and strong willed. Whether you like character-driven or plot driven, you can't go wrong with her novels.

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