Alone by Lisa Gardner

“Alone” by Lisa Gardner starts out as an exciting fast paced thriller but bogs down in the middle. The author adds too many highly improbable scenarios and weaves a web that’s too tangled to accept.

Bobby Dodge is a Massachusetts State Trooper and a sniper for STOP, Special Tactics and Operations Police. His swat team is assembled to end a domestic abuse situation where a woman, Catharine Gagnon, is being held at gun point by her husband, Jimmy. Bobby has Jimmy in his crosshairs and he sees the man start to pull the trigger. In the past the team has always resolved these situations peacefully but Bobby has no choice. He shoots the husband.

Jimmy Gagnon was the son of a powerful Superior Court Judge who now claims that Catharine set up the scenario to get his son killed. Bobby is suspended, pending an investigation, but things get even more complicated when the widow contacts him asking for help. Catharine is a woman with a traumatic past. When she was a child she was kidnapped, sexually abused and held underground for twenty-eight days before she was found by hunters. She testified against her captor and he was jailed. Richard Umbrio remains in prison for the crime but Catharine was psychologically damaged. Bobby has his own issues and he’s sympathetic. Unfortunately his superiors are suspicious of his involvement with the dead man’s wife. People are starting to believe there’s more going on between them.

Catharine claims Jimmy abused her. Judge Gagnon and his wife say she’s the abuser and her past makes her unfit to take care of Nathan. The four year old boy is continually being hospitalized and the grandparents claim Catharine is making him sick to gain attention, a case of Munchausen’s by Proxy. Things get even more complicated when a mysterious man starts following Catharine. Did someone hire a stalker? Is she a manipulative widow or is she the one being manipulated?

The characters are well written with clear back story, however with the exception of Bobby, they weren’t particularly likable. The motives of the grandparents are questionable; they’re portrayed as pretty heartless. Gardner knows how to build the suspense until the reader is on the edge of their seat. But as one twist after another is added to the plot the story becomes convoluted and less believable. This psychological thriller had great potential but didn’t quite make it.

Publisher: Bantam (December 27, 2005) ISBN: 978-0553584530 Pages: 480 Price: $7.99

Alone by Lisa Gardner