Status
Available
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bantam Books (1999), Edition: 1st Printing
Description
Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:Twenty years ago, Melanie Stokes was abandoned in a Boston hospital, then adopted by a wealthy young couple. Gifted with loving parents, a doting brother, and an indulgent uncle, Melanie has always considered herself lucky. Until the first cryptic, threatening note arrives: �??You Get What You Deserve.�?� Melanie has no memory of her life before the adoption. Now someone wants her to remember it all�??even the darkest nightmare the Stokes family ever faced: the murder of their first daughter. As Melanie pursues every lead and chases every shadow in search of her real identity, two seemingly unrelated events from her past will come together in a dangerous explosion of truth. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Lisa Gardner's Love You More.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jshillingford
One of the few mystery novels that I didn't guess "the villain" in teh first half. Original story, surprising ending - Lisa Gardner is a top notch writer.
LibraryThing member debavp
An interesting story that should keep you intrigued until the end. While you may subconsciously have it figured out early on, Gardner weaves the story together in such a way as to keep you guessing until the end. Midway you'll be asking but what about... and even though you get to it before the FBI
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guys do, you still aren't sure if you're right. This could easily have been a 4 to 4.5 star read but unfortunately Gardner tosses all the hard work out the window with nothing more than a pitiful harlequinesque ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member BogartFan
A cracking good read! Moves like a freight train, great sense of macabre humor, and a satifying ending. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member rrabbit
too much recycle of the possible facts and the main character is out of synch with her education -- too harsh and foul mouthed, just didn't seem right, she was portrayed as not being a brat...something was off
LibraryThing member Camethyste
Wow. This was written very well. The story was excellent and I really like this author. The book kept me guessing until the end, and I really enjoyed the ending. The characters were well thought out and had a full background that made them seem real. One thing that really did bother me - Meagan was
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always called "Meagan Stokes," even by her own family. It would have flowed a lot better to just say "Meagan." Show Less
LibraryThing member Susi
couldn't put it down! finished it in 3 days :)
LibraryThing member damzlfly
Decent mystery, but must be prepared to suspend belief in order to enjoy: physics of electrocution and EMT procedures wrong, Feebie behavior beyond unprofessional - just plain suspicious. After three or four chapters, I decided I was reading a fantasy and just went with it.
LibraryThing member TinyDancer11
Very intriguing story and one I didnt immediately suspect the ending to like so many suspense novels. I had trouble putting it down!
LibraryThing member jacki
Typical, no real surprises, but a nice quick read.
LibraryThing member caroren
Professional event planner Melanie Stokes does not suspect that the death of a serial killer in a Texas electric chair 20 years before could have any relevance to her neatly ordered existence. But as it becomes clear that the life she's known (as the adopted daughter of Boston cardiologist Harper
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Stokes and his trophy wife, Patricia) is based on ugly secrets and bloody lies, her world unravels. With the help of FBI Agent David Riggs, who makes up for his lack of physical agilityAthe result of ankylosing spondylitis (bad back problems)Awith finely honed reflexes, street smarts and pure sex appeal, Melanie unearths what an intricately planned 25-year-old cover-up can't hide: the gruesome truth about her parentage. Once again, Gardner serves up suspense at a furious pace. A good page turne Show Less
LibraryThing member kim.jacobs
Enjoyed the book. I found it a bit confusing trying to learn all of the characters and their connections but by the end had it. A strange story and a bit unbelievable but enough of a twist that I could not figure it out.
LibraryThing member tulikangaroo
I'm conflicted about this one... on one hand, it's a very engaging thriller that definitely kept me reading to the end. On the other, I find much of the story and set-up far-fetched to say the least. Why would morphine erase 9 years of her life? Hey, we've been seeing each other for a month
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(without saying much) so we should get married! And so on. I also figured out much of the story pretty early on... that said, I still wanted to see how it all fit together. Show Less
LibraryThing member kteeley
Ordinarily I really enjoy Lisa Gardner's stories. Maybe this one was dated but I did not find any of the characters (except David) likable or believable. The story just seemed too far fetched to hold my interest.
LibraryThing member booklovers2
Fast Pace Thriller; easy listen - A little girl Meghan Stokes is kidnapped and found decapitated - another little girl shows up in the hospital where Dr Stokes works- she is abandoned -name unknown, no one claims her - eventually she is adopted by the Stokes, needing a daughter to love - ends up
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she is the daughter of the convicted murderer of their child - she happened into the hospital, the same day of the execution. Who killed Meghan? Which of these people is the real killer - -Someone wants the real story out and "you get what you deserve" notes show up & with leaks to the FBI there are a lot of moving parts to keep up with but a good thriller although somewhat cheesy Show Less
LibraryThing member SheriAWilkinson
The Other Daughter (Lisa Gardner).
A psychological suspense Thriller. Melanie Stokes has it all. A prominent wealthy Surgeon father, beautiful loving mother, and a Godfather who dotes on her. She knows she is lucky because she is adopted, and never gave thought to her real parents. She also lives
Melanie starts to ask about her sister, she has memory loss, can not remember anything prior to her adoption. Yet these un-re-memorable memories begin to haunt her. She starts to question her family, coming up on dead ends. She wonders if she really is loved, who are her "parents" and can this crazy man be her biological father?
An intense read, with surprises along the way. Lisa Gardner knows how to draw in a reader and keep you hanging on until the last page. All night reading suspense.
A psychological suspense Thriller. Melanie Stokes has it all. A prominent wealthy Surgeon father, beautiful loving mother, and a Godfather who dotes on her. She knows she is lucky because she is adopted, and never gave thought to her real parents. She also lives
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with a family tragedy, one that is never spoken of. Her sister Meagan was murdered 20 years ago, by the child serial killer Russell Lee Holmes.Melanie starts to ask about her sister, she has memory loss, can not remember anything prior to her adoption. Yet these un-re-memorable memories begin to haunt her. She starts to question her family, coming up on dead ends. She wonders if she really is loved, who are her "parents" and can this crazy man be her biological father?
An intense read, with surprises along the way. Lisa Gardner knows how to draw in a reader and keep you hanging on until the last page. All night reading suspense.
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LibraryThing member LisCarey
At nine years old, a little girl with no memory of her past was abandoned in a hospital, and after several months was adopted by the wealthy Stokes family--a cardiac surgeon, his wife, and their son Brian, a family grieving the kidnapping and murder of the Stokes' four-year-old daughter, Meghan,
Twenty years later, Melanie Stokes is happy, confident, loving and loved by her adoptive family. She volunteers for various charities, especially the American Red Cross. On the night of one her major events, a party plus blood donation event plus "donate a rare book" to raise funds, a voice out of the past intrudes. A reporter from Texas, Larry Digger, catches her when she's getting a breath of fresh air, grabs her, and makes some alarming suggestions about her past. He says she's the daughter of Russell Lee Holmes, the man who, along with the deaths of six other young children, confessed to kidnaping and murdering the Stokes' first daughter, Meghan. And he says that her parents know. How did she come to be abandoned in the very Boston hospital where Dr. Harper Stokes worked? Why was he there, and not in Texas with the rest of the family, watching the execution of Russell Lee Holmes on that night? Why hasn't she ever recovered her memory of her first nine years? Has she really not remembered anything?
Melanie is rescued from the clutches of the reporter by one of the waiters hired for the party, David Riggs. What she doesn't know about him is that he's an FBI Special Agent, investigating her father for insurance fraud.
The Stokes family and their friends (Melanie's stepfather, Jamie O'Donnell; her boss and friend at the Red Cross, Ann Margaret; her father's younger colleague and briefly Melanie's fiancé, William Sheffield) have a frightening array of secrets, and where Melanie came from and why she doesn't remember her first nine years, is just the tip of the iceberg.
And what Melanie hasn't told anyone yet is that the migraines she's been having are accompanied by frightening dreams, or visions...or memories, of being in a cabin in the woods, where Meghan Stokes is desperately pleading to be taken home. She tries to bury those memories, and certainly doesn't want to tell anyone--but Larry Digger's alarming suggestions fall on fertile ground.
Meanwhile, David Riggs has his own issues. Arthritis killed his baseball career, and as an FBI agent has him investigating insurance fraud, not organized crime, and he feels he's failed his father. And he's lying to Melanie about what he's doing around her family. Even after he admits to being an FBI agent, he's still hiding the fact that he's investigating her father, not her former fiancé, for insurance fraud.
Everyone in Melanie's life, though, is lying to her, about far more important things, and it's all about to blow up on all of them.
It's a large and complex secret that needs to be uncovered, and we get some interesting and complex character development along the way.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
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five years earlier.Twenty years later, Melanie Stokes is happy, confident, loving and loved by her adoptive family. She volunteers for various charities, especially the American Red Cross. On the night of one her major events, a party plus blood donation event plus "donate a rare book" to raise funds, a voice out of the past intrudes. A reporter from Texas, Larry Digger, catches her when she's getting a breath of fresh air, grabs her, and makes some alarming suggestions about her past. He says she's the daughter of Russell Lee Holmes, the man who, along with the deaths of six other young children, confessed to kidnaping and murdering the Stokes' first daughter, Meghan. And he says that her parents know. How did she come to be abandoned in the very Boston hospital where Dr. Harper Stokes worked? Why was he there, and not in Texas with the rest of the family, watching the execution of Russell Lee Holmes on that night? Why hasn't she ever recovered her memory of her first nine years? Has she really not remembered anything?
Melanie is rescued from the clutches of the reporter by one of the waiters hired for the party, David Riggs. What she doesn't know about him is that he's an FBI Special Agent, investigating her father for insurance fraud.
The Stokes family and their friends (Melanie's stepfather, Jamie O'Donnell; her boss and friend at the Red Cross, Ann Margaret; her father's younger colleague and briefly Melanie's fiancé, William Sheffield) have a frightening array of secrets, and where Melanie came from and why she doesn't remember her first nine years, is just the tip of the iceberg.
And what Melanie hasn't told anyone yet is that the migraines she's been having are accompanied by frightening dreams, or visions...or memories, of being in a cabin in the woods, where Meghan Stokes is desperately pleading to be taken home. She tries to bury those memories, and certainly doesn't want to tell anyone--but Larry Digger's alarming suggestions fall on fertile ground.
Meanwhile, David Riggs has his own issues. Arthritis killed his baseball career, and as an FBI agent has him investigating insurance fraud, not organized crime, and he feels he's failed his father. And he's lying to Melanie about what he's doing around her family. Even after he admits to being an FBI agent, he's still hiding the fact that he's investigating her father, not her former fiancé, for insurance fraud.
Everyone in Melanie's life, though, is lying to her, about far more important things, and it's all about to blow up on all of them.
It's a large and complex secret that needs to be uncovered, and we get some interesting and complex character development along the way.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
Show Less
Awards
Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (Winner — 1999)
Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Finalist - Published Division — 2000)
Language
Original publication date
1999-07
ISBN
0553576798 / 9780553576795
Other editions
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