Crash & Burn

Written by Lisa Gardner

Narrated by Christina Traister and Mikael Naramore

In the new novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling “master of psychological suspense,”* featuring a cameo by fan-favorite Boston detective D. D. Warren, memories can be murder....

Nicole Frank shouldn’t have survived the car accident, much less the crawl up the steep ravine. One thought allows her to defy the odds and flag down help—she must save Vero.

If the girl even exists.

Arriving at the scene, Sergeant Wyatt Foster joins the desperate hunt for a missing child, only to learn that Nicky suffers from a rare brain injury that causes delusions. According to her husband, there is no child. Never has been. And yet Nicky remains adamant. She must save Vero.

For Wyatt and investigator Tessa Leoni, nothing about this case is simple. It turns out Nicky has recently suffered more than one close accident. Is she indeed delusional, as her husband claims, or perhaps she knows more than she thinks? Because clearly someone out there won’t rest till Nicky crashes and burns....

*The Associated Press

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Feb 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781480597143

Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty novels, including Look for Me, Right Behind You, Find Her, Crash & Burn, Fear Nothing, Touch & Go, Catch Me, and The Neighbor, which won the International Thriller of the Year Award. She lives with her family in New England.

Reviews for Crash & Burn

[Kathleen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent storyline, but very heavy topics. The female narrator is fantastic, I didn’t care for the male. His voices for women were not very good. All in all a great audiobook, I’d recommend starting with book 1 in the series.

[Deeda Long · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well written, kept me binge listening, a lot of twist and turns.

[Kathryn Mathias · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I almost stopped reading this (listening to the audiobook), on multiple occasions - until getting through the first third of the book. Not sure why I hung in there - perhaps because of other reviews praising it, or because I'm a fan of the author, Lisa Gardner. Really glad I kept with it. Turned into a 'by the seat-of-your-pants' thriller. Surprise ending. Fascinating back stories for the main characters. I'm obviously going to have to read the first two Tessa books. I've read all the DD Warren's, but this is Tessa's. Can be read as stand-alone, but now I want to read the other books in the series.

[Sonja Croney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome story. Keeps you wondering till the end. A must read

[Carol Zaricor · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was a slow and confusing start. I also did not like the name of the girl in the book. The last few chapters were nail biting. The plot twist really got me. Overall it was a good book.

[Sally Thierer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t like the male police voices. And DD sounded like she was British, not Bostonian. Not my favorite plot.

[stephanie clay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. Lots of twists and turns in the ending ending was not predictable as so many are I highly recommend

[NNEAMAKA PAYNE · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Although I had never read any of the Tessa Leoni series, I have read two novels featuring Boston's favourite detective, D.D. Warren, so I had a fair idea of what to expect from a Lisa Gardner novel; namely blood-pumping exhilaration and more questions than answers before Gardner unwinds the whole thing and leaves her readers with their jaws gaping... The great thing about Lisa Gardner is that she drops her readers in the thick of the action from the off and from then on it is a frenetic race for answers. Crash & Burn must surely be one of her most labyrinthine plots to date and as Gardner poses questions and knocks them down, readers will need their wits about them to keep ahead of the game.

One might assume that a cop in the wilds of New Hampshire would have it easier than the hustle and bustle of a city detective.. Not so, and when Sergeant Wyatt Foster is confronted by what should be a straightforward scenario of a drunk driver in inclement weather missing the bend and sailing over into the woodland ravine, nothing is quite as simple as it looks. The reason for this is the identity of the woman driving the vehicle, Nicky Frank, who drags her battered body up the treacherous ravine focused on one thing: getting help for Vero, her little girl who was in car with her. The search dogs can't pick up a second scent and when the women's husband tells Wyatt that they are childless, his first assumption is that Nicole is well and truly out of the game. Prepare for things to get a lot less clear cut when her husband, Thomas Frank, relays the details of the three successive concussions which have left her floundering with post-concussive syndrome and prone to confusion, rambling and time-lapses. Significantly, every successive concussion has raised Nicky's susceptibility to alcohol exponentially, meaning a little goes a very long way.

When the initial questions don't provide the expected answers, Wyatt and his partner, Kevin Santos, are drawn to Nicky's shifty and over-protective husband, Thomas, but it isn't just the cops who need answers, it is Nicky Frank too. In the six-months since they moved to the area surely her three successive concussions are down to more than simply being accident prone? All the indications point to a controlling husband and Wyatt is forced to unpick his way to the answers, never knowing whether he will be faced with the sane or skittish Nicky. When Nicky's blood alcohol reading does not put her over the limit and her vehicle is found to be in neutral, Wyatt thinks Thomas knows more than he is saying. However the questions do not end there.. Nicky remembers leaving her home early evening Wednesday, so where has she been until 5 o'clock the next morning? Why did she drive so far from her home before purchasing any alcohol and where has she been to account for the excess mileage that registers on her odometer? Even more worryingly, why has the stability control on the vehicle been deactivated? This is a riddle and a half with Nicky's confusion rearing its head and fragments of different times frames merging into one. But stick with Nicky's confused rants about "dying for the second time" and "Vero wanting to fly" and trust in Lisa Gardner to anchor Crash & Burn home.

Sergeant Wyatt Foster has the patience of a saint as he and sidekick Kevin Santos consider every aspect of the car accident, and along the way Lisa Gardner will pose questions about the logistics of a road traffic accident that will not even have entered the average persons mindset. Prepare for things to become even more bizarre when call logs show contact between Nicky Frank and Tessa Leoni, a former state trooper turned private security specialist working for Northledge Investigations and she is drawn into the fray. Not only is Tessa the significant other in Wyatt Foster's life, but her employers at Northledge have been hired on a retainer looking into a personal matter for Nicky Frank, not that Nicky has any memory of just what that is in her current state and Tessa's firm are bound by strict confidentiality clauses..

Crash & Burn works perfectly as a standalone if you haven't read either of the two previous books featuring Tessa Leoni and I really warmed to the caring Sergeant Wyatt Foster and hope to see more of the Wyatt and Tessa tie-up. Admittedly this is serpentine plot, and this is a novel that demands attention and needs rapid consumption. Miss something along the way and Gardner might lose her less attentive readers but these are the joys of running with Lisa Gardner, an author who is as versatile discussing close combat shoot outs with psychopaths in Boston to the finer details of a car crash in the wilds of New Hampshire. Crash & Burn requires mental dexterity of the highest order and for readers new to Gardner's writing my first advice would be to ease yourself in with one of her less convoluted plots.

[Jeanne Nichol · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A novel plot that keeps u coming back for answers! U won’t solve the mystery…not even when it is exposed bit by bit. Highly recommend!