Today's Read: Never Tell by Lisa Gardner

If you were a police detective and found a woman holding a literal smoking gun in the same room as her freshly shot and dead husband, who would you pin for the murder? Boston Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren makes the obvious connection. The book opens from the perspective of Evie, the woman with the gun:

By the time I pull my car into the garage, my hands are shaking on the wheel. I tell myself I have no reason to feel so nervous. I tell myself I’ve done nothing wrong. I still sit there an extra beat, staring straight ahead, as if some magic answer to the mess that is my life will appear in the windshield.

It doesn’t.

—Never Tell by Lisa Gardner (Dutton, Aug. 6, p. 1, paperback)

Quick Facts

• Setting: Boston, modern times
• Circumstances: Although police find pregnant schoolteacher Evelyn Carter holding a just-shot gun, she swears she's innocent of her husband's death. Detective Warren has cause to disbelieve Evie, especially because years ago Warren investigated her for the supposed accidental shooting of her father. On the other hand, one of Warren's informants, Flora Dane, disagrees. Dane, a kidnapping survivor, recognizes the late-Conrad Carter as being a friend of her captor. The two woman are on the same case but not necessarily on the same side. Yet each wants the answer to this question: Did Evie kill her husband?
• Genre & themes: police procedural murder mystery mixed with psychological thriller; themes of family, marriage, secrets, PTSD
• Why I want to read it: Gardner is a master of suspense, and this latest pairing of D. D. Warren and Flora Dane has gotten nothing but praise.
• Extra things to know: This is the tenth book in the Warren series and the third featuring victim-turned-vigilante Flora Dane. The paperback edition, along with a great new cover (shown here), comes out today. For more on Gardner be sure to visit her website.
• Acknowledgments: Thanks to Dutton for the digital review copy of Lisa Gardner's Never Tell.