Review: The Guy Who Died Twice by Lisa Gardner

Title: The Guy Who Died Twice

Author: Lisa Gardner

Series: Detective D.D. Warren, #9.5

Published: January 2019, Dutton

Format: ARC E-copy, 72 pages

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary: 

Sergeant Detective D.
D. Warren confronts the strangest case of her career in this exclusive
eBook short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

D.
D. Warren was pretty sure she’d seen it all. Then a man walks into
police headquarters, attempting desperately to convince the squad that
he’s dead. Explaining to him that he’s very much alive, they finally
send him on his way . . . and then hours later, he turns up actually
dead. And it’s on D. D. Warren to figure out how and why the dead man
died . . . twice.

Plus: an early look at Gardner’s next riveting thriller, Never Tell.

My thoughts: I am a huge fan of Lisa Gardner’s Detective D.D. Warren series and so of course I am going to read any and all books she writes that are part of this…including the short stories. And what a fun, crazy short story this one turned out to be! 

I loved the way this one was structured – at night where she was decompressing after her crazy day, going over the case with her husband and then taking us back to the day itself, hour by hour. So we get to be there as D.D. is gathering facts and we get to hear her commentary after the fact as she rehashes the situation with her husband, but it’s done side-by-side. It really was quite a clever way to structure the story, and allows you as the reader to try to put the clues together before the final reveal.

I’ll tell you, this one definitely had me scratching my head as I wondered what really happened and I loved the sense of the closed room – or in this case, a closed house – feel we get from this book. And the author’s note at the end is quite fascinating. Even though this really is quite a short story, coming in at under 100 pages, I found myself completely engaged and enjoyed every bit of it. This was the perfect little teaser for the upcoming new novel in this series – Never Tell, which comes out next month!

Books in this series: 

     1.  Alone                              

     2.  Hide                             
     3.  The Neighbor               
     4.  Live to Tell                               
     5.  Love You More

     5.5  The 7th Month

     6.  Catch Me

     7. Fear Nothing

     7.5  3 Truths & a Lie

     8.  Find Her     9.  Look for Me  

     9.5  The Guy Who Died Twice

     10.  Never Tell – due out Feb 19