Lisa Gardner | Fiction, 2009

462 pages

I ran out of books!  Not wanting to drive to the library, I walked down to the bottom of my driveway, to the Little Library I put there on the corner (no surprise, I am sure), and grabbed this mystery to read.  It is pretty good!

Sandy Jones disappears one night.  Her four-year-old daughter Ree knows more than she is saying.  Her husband Jason is, of course, a suspect in her disappearance and possible murder.  Then again, the convicted sex offender who lives five doors away is also a suspect.  As is the man Sandy had a short affair with.  And then there is 13-year-old Ethan, who is in love with “Mrs. Sandra.”  What role does he play?

It is an interesting story, and the resolution is clever, I think.  This is one of a series of books written by Ms. Gardner about the Boston Police Department investigator, Sargent D.D. Warren.  I don’t think the author does a good job at all developing D.D.’s character.  The only thing we really learn about her is that she is, um, horny.

So, all in all, a fun and appealing read.  Not compelling enough to go chase down more Lisa Gardner books.  Read it for fun, but not for any great insight.  (As an aside, I think someone turned off their creative genius when they titled this book The Neighbor.  Seriously boring and not all that accurate.  I would have titled it Steel Doors.)

I now have ten (10!) books in my to-read pile.  What is next, I wonder?  It is a mystery even to me!