Product Description

Lisa Gardner, the New York Times bestselling author of Hide and Gone, draws us into the venomous mind games of her most terrifying killer yet.

Come into my parlor . . .

For Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too horrifying to be true—but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care.

Said the spider to the fly . . .

As a member of the Evidence Response Team, dead hookers aren’t exactly Kimberly’s specialty. The young agent is five months pregnant—she has other things to worry about than an alleged lunatic who uses spiders to do his dirty work. But Kimberly’s own mother and sister were victims of a serial killer. And now, without any bodies and with precious few clues, it’s all too clear that a serial killer has found the key to the perfect murder . . . or Kimberly is chasing a crime that never happened.

Kimberly’s caught in a web more lethal than any spider’s, and the more she fights for answers, the more tightly she’s trapped. What she doesn’t know is that she’s close—too close—to a psychopath who makes women’s nightmares come alive, and if he has his twisted way, it won’t be long before it’s time for Kimberly to . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256926 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-15
• Released on: 2008-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780553804331
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
In the latest Kimberly Quincy thriller, the FBI special agent is five months pregnant. Most women might be thinking about taking things a bit easy, but not Quincy: not only is she still working full time but she also stumbles into what might be the biggest case of her career (and, as regular readers know, she has already tackled a few big ones). A serial killer is targeting young women. This in itself isn’t so unusual, but here’s the twist: he is, or so it appears, using spiders as murder weapons. Kimberly is convinced she is on the trail of a psychopath, but without any bodies or hard evidence, she is having a difficult time convincing her superiors she isn’t on a wild-goose chase. In her last few novels, especially Gone (2006) and the excellent Hide (2007), Gardner has really hit her stride, and this one, if not her best, will surely be a surefire hit for her fans—and, in fact, for all readers who likes their thrillers suspenseful, fast paced, and just a little creepy (OK, a lot creepy). --David Pitt

Review
"Just when you thought Lisa Gardner couldn't get any better ... she does. Say Goodbye is a stunning, chilling, up-all-night thriller that will leave you shaken."—Lee Child

“A spider-obsessed killer is hunting Atlanta prostitutes…. He’s seriously scary and the flashbacks to his abusive past achieve a ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity.”—Entertainment Weekly

" Haunting.... Gardner has consistently delivered entertaining and suspenseful novels in recent years, but she's gone one better with Say Goodbye, perhaps her best book yet."—Chicago Sun-Times

“Should have a warning label: ‘Read only in a well-lit room that has first been thoroughly checked for spiderwebs.’ Then, you can settle back and get caught up in a story that is truly a stunner of a suspense novel.”–Tulsa World

“Gardner continue[s] to write fascinating, dark characters…. [She] surprises you right up until the end.”–Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

“For all readers who likes their thrillers suspenseful, fast paced, and just a little creepy (OK, a lot creepy).”—Booklist

"Lock the doors before you open this book, and hope that the only web being woven around you is Lisa Gardner’s mesmerizing story."—Tess Gerritsen

“Engaging if highly disturbing.”—Publishers Weekly


From the Hardcover edition.

Review
"Just when you thought Lisa Gardner couldn't get any better ... she does. Say Goodbye is a stunning, chilling, up-all-night thriller that will leave you shaken."—Lee Child

“A spider-obsessed killer is hunting Atlanta prostitutes…. He’s seriously scary and the flashbacks to his abusive past achieve a ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity.”—Entertainment Weekly

" Haunting.... Gardner has consistently delivered entertaining and suspenseful novels in recent years, but she's gone one better with Say Goodbye, perhaps her best book yet."—Chicago Sun-Times

“Should have a warning label: ‘Read only in a well-lit room that has first been thoroughly checked for spiderwebs.’ Then, you can settle back and get caught up in a story that is truly a stunner of a suspense novel.”–Tulsa World

“Gardner continue[s] to write fascinating, dark characters…. [She] surprises you right up until the end.”–Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

“For all readers who likes their thrillers suspenseful, fast paced, and just a little creepy (OK, a lot creepy).”—Booklist

"Lock the doors before you open this book, and hope that the only web being woven around you is Lisa Gardner’s mesmerizing story."—Tess Gerritsen

“Engaging if highly disturbing.”—Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

"Every month, another girl vanishes."
Lisa Gardner's "Say Goodbye" is a dark and unnerving tale of sadistic torture, child abuse, and murder. Shortly after the book opens, a tough-talking teenager named Ginny Jones gets in a car with a stranger. She quickly realizes her mistake when it becomes apparent that "this man was never, ever letting her go home." The villain is a deranged yet calculating individual who needs to be in control; he kidnaps boys and women and revels in the power that he has over them. He calls himself Dinchara (an acronym for arachnid), since he is obsessed with spiders. He owns a large collection of the eight-legged creatures, and tends to their every need with meticulous care. Gardner begins each chapter with a quotation that imparts more information about arachnids than most of us need to know.

The book's heroine is Kimberly Quincy, an FBI agent in the Atlanta Field Office. Kimberley, who is five months pregnant, is gorgeous, bright, and obsessed with her career. "She worked too hard, compartmentalized too little, and probably would have a nervous breakdown before the age of forty." Although she is happily anticipating the birth of her baby, she is also conflicted. How can she, in good conscience, risk her life and the welfare of her unborn child chasing down dangerous felons for a living? Still, she is reluctant to leave the profession that means so much to her. She and Michael McCormack, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, have been married for a year. They disagree on the issue of motherhood vs. career, and the resulting quarrel puts a strain on their relationship. Kimberly does not want history to repeat itself. Her father was an FBI agent "whose workaholic ways imploded his marriage."

Kimberly teams up with GBI Special Agent Salvadore Martignetti to find the aforementioned spider fancier who has allegedly committed a whole host of crimes and is still at large. As is common in novels of this type, the author includes italicized first person passages in which the perpetrator describes how and why he became a cold-blooded monster. Abuse begets abuse; it is a vicious circle that never seems to end. Fortunately, there are some merciful people in the world, such as Rita, a woman who is approaching her ninetieth birthday. For nearly twenty years, this formidable and courageous woman fostered nearly thirty homeless children and tried to set them on the right path. She plays a small but crucial role in the narrative.

Although her writing is not particularly elegant, Gardner ratchets up the suspense nicely. She keeps the plot moving at a fast pace and provides engrossing and carefully researched details about the functioning of Georgia's various law enforcement agencies. Except for the requisite twists and turns, however, the plot offers few surprises. The dialogue is stilted, the characters are generally one-dimensional, and the plot adheres closely to the standard serial killer formula. Be warned that there are quite a few disturbing scenes of graphic violence and brutality. This nightmarish novel is by no means a light beach read.

Disturbing
I agree with another one of the reviews already posted...this book was a decent mystery/thriller but so disturbing with regards to child abuse that I could not enjoy it, nor would I ever recommend it. I was a fan of Gardner's but hated this book. I am still bothered by many of the scenes. If you have kids, skip this one, seriously.

*I am not giving this book a low rating because Gardner wrote such vivid abuse scenes (I agree that they were not gratuitous and she probably did want to raise the profile of child abuse for a greater good). I am giving "Say Goodbye" a low rating because those same vivid scenes made it impossible for me to enjoy or like this book.

"Every Goodbye Makes The Next Hello Closer"
An arrested prostitute calls FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy claiming to have information for her. Deliah Rose tells her that a wealthy john is taking street prostitutes and lets his poisonous spiders crawl on them and engage in other dangerous activities. She states that her friend Ginny was with him and has vanished. Delilah has found Ginny's boyfrind's school ring, that Ginny always wore on a neckless around her neck. The ring was in the john's car. She wants Agent Quincy to stop him.

Kimberly's associate, Sal Martingnetti, informs her that he's also worried that someone is picking off hookers. Twice he has had the driver's licenses of three women placed on the windshield of his car. But, no bodies have been found so it's difficult to get his superiors to permit him to mount an investigation. Even though Kim is five months, pregnant, a time when most women might begin to take things easier, she decides to work with Sal to attempt to stop the person responsible for his crimes against the prostitutes.

One night,they follow Delilah down a street where they know that Ginny's boyfriend was shot. Then, Kim realizes that Delilah is really Ginny. Ginny admits it and tells them that she calls the john Dinchara, a play on the word arachnid, because of his fetish with spiders. When Dinchara first took her, she realized that he got a kick when someone showed fear so when she didn't scream when he put a black widow spider on her, Dinchara let her live. He does make her turn tricks and once per month, he meets her and gets a pay off.

Kim and Sal must find a way to stop Dinchara and get enough evidence to arrest him. Then they find that he has a teenage boy helping him and is also grooming a younger boy. Now their mission is to stop Dinchara and rescue the boys.

The author knows suspense and has provided a story that will keep her readers turning the pages with anticipation. The characters are well described and the antagonist was truly evil, not only doing terrible things to people but training young children to help in his crimes. This well done novel will keep Gardner's fans coming back for more.