When You See Me - Lisa Gardner

GARDNER is one of America's best writers of slick, gripping thrillers and sits at the top of the tree with Karin Slaughter and Tess Gerritsen.

Her latest novel brings together characters from various novels – across her entire career in fact – for a complex, exciting and violent pageturner.

Gardner first achieved success with her serial-killer novels featuring FBI agent Kimberley Quincy, then forged and even more popular series with no-nonsense cop and mother DD Warren.

When You See Me sees them working together, along with former kidnap victim Flora Dane who survived massive perils in the previous Gardner novel.

That book should have seen an end to vicious kidnapper Jacob Ness, due to the fact he is now dead, but there are still loose ends to tie up and Fl is part of a special task force.

It's best not to give away much else, since is a follow-on from events in previous books, but suffice to say the characters, setting and plot are all top-notch, making for a satisfying culmination of the ongoing story.

It's best if you have read Lisa Gardner's previous few novels, but When You See Me can – only just – be read as a stand-alone book.

David Knights