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Lisa Gardner has crafted a fine psychological thriller in Alone. While I found myself immediately immersed in the drama, I got about 160 pages in, and I still wasn’t sure where she was taking me. It was that complex.

Bobby Dodge is a Massachusetts State Trooper who is a sniper called in as part of a crisis team to handle a hostage situation in a wealthy Boston neighborhood. From a window across the street, he sets up his rifle. He sees a woman, a young boy, and a man with a gun. As the man’s finger tightens on the trigger and his face contorts into an evil smile, Bobby has to make an instantaneous decision. He does. Lives change forever.

Catherine Gagnon, the widow of the man Bobby shot, is incredibly beautiful. She is also manipulative and dangerous. As a young girl, she was kidnapped and sexually molested. She was rescued, and her abuser was put in prison. But she carries some deep scars.

The story has multiple layers, as we learn that Jimmy Gagnon, the dead man, was the son of a powerful judge, who wants to gain custody of Catherine’s young son Nathan. Judge Gagnon is having murder charges brought against Bobby unless he lies about what happened the night of the shooting. And then people begin to die.

Who is behind the killings, and why? Bobby knows he should stay away from Catherine, but he also sees her as a woman who needs help. Can he really help? And can he heal the wounds of his own painful past? Did he do the right thing, or will doubts plague him the rest of his life?

This novel is billed as a Detective D.D. Warren book, but we don’t meet her until midway through the book, and we actually see very little of her in this first of the series, so I didn’t feel that I got to know her. Bobby and Catherine were both well-developed characters. Messed up, but well written. Actually, there are lots of messed up people in this book. Although I was able to predict some of what happened, I did not know what motivated the characters, at least not all of them, and I liked that.

There were a few minor things, editing errors, which stuck out. Also, the puppy is said to lick the child with a rough tongue. I know cats have rough tongues; dogs do not. That would have been a wet, sloppy kiss. Some of the events seemed rather unbelievable, especially the final scene in the hotel. That seemed to me like a made-for-TV scene. But for the most part, I did not want to turn off the lights and be alone while reading Alone, so I think the author did her job in writing a great thriller.

I’m giving it 4 ½ stars.