Catch Me

By Lisa Gardner

(Dutton)

Lisa Gardner’s talent for showing ordinary people caught in the worst time of their lives and then dangling them over a precipice of more danger is polished to a high gloss in the involving and highly entertaining “Catch Me.”

Gardner’s 16th novel melds a thrilling police procedural with a gripping personal story of a woman who refuses to be a victim. “Catch Me’s” brisk pace is matched by Gardner’s attention to believable characters. As usual, Gardner peppers her novel with extensive research that enhances the plot but does not weigh it down. An intense view of self-defense, a chilling look at pedophile rings that will make parents even more vigilant and a peek inside a police dispatch center keep “Catch Me” moving to its exciting finale.

Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant lives a near hermit-like existence in Boston, renting a room in a boarding house, feeding a stray dog and working the graveyard shift as a police dispatch officer. She has no friends and has no contact with anyone from her past. Charlie, as she calls herself, survived a horrific childhood until she was rescued by the aunt who raised her since she was 8 years old. And she is determined to survive her own murder. Charlie believes that in two days she will be killed as were her two best friends who were murdered on the same day, a year apart.

Charlie wants Boston police detective D.D. Warren to investigate her pending murder. D.D. both is intrigued by Charlie and her story, and doesn’t believe a word she says. As D.D. looks into Charlie’s background, the detective also heads an investigation into the murders of two pedophiles. According to witnesses, the two men’s killer resembles Charlie. D.D. finds herself more emotionally involved in the cases as the tough-as-nails detective has just returned from maternity leave.

Uncharacteristically, D.D. even welcomes help from an ambitious rookie detective.

Gardner skillfully moves the story from the present back to Charlie’s memories, giving a well-rounded portrait of this woman whose inner resolve forces her to be a survivor. Motherhood hasn’t softened the independent, rough-around-the-edges D.D., but it has forced this character to view her life and police work with a new perspective.

Gardner continues to explore new dimensions to D.D., who is making her sixth appearance in “Catch Me.” Cameos of characters from previous Gardner novels are seamlessly woven into “Catch Me.”

Gardner sprinkles plenty of clues and inventive twists to keep readers off-kilter in “Catch Me.” Each of Gardner’s 16 novels has landed on best-sellers lists. “Catch Me” should continue that trend. (MCT)