Summary
What happens when a seasoned Boston detective and a trauma survivor with her own lethal skill set are forced to work together – each carrying wounds the other can barely understand? In The 7th Month, Lisa Gardner delivers a pulse-pounding entry in her celebrated D.D. Warren series, weaving a taut crime thriller around a web of murders that grows darker and more personal with every chapter. This is the kind of story that makes you miss your stop on the commute and stay up well past midnight, completely unable to press pause.
Audiobook Info
- Author: Lisa Gardner
- Narrator: Julia Whelan & Jonathan Davis
- Duration: 12 hours and 22 minutes
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Release Date: January 8, 2019
- Series: D.D. Warren
- Book: 11
Review
The dual narration by Julia Whelan and Jonathan Davis is, without question, one of the defining strengths of this audiobook experience. Whelan inhabits Flora Dane – survivor, fighter, and reluctant ally – with a raw, barely-contained emotional intensity that makes every scene feel urgent and uncomfortably intimate. She captures Flora’s layered psychology with stunning precision: the hyper-vigilance of a woman who survived the unsurvivable, the dark humor she uses as armor, and the genuine vulnerability she fights so hard to conceal. Davis, meanwhile, lends the male characters a grounded authority that keeps the narrative from ever feeling one-note. Together, they create a dynamic tension that mirrors the uneasy alliance at the heart of the story itself.
Lisa Gardner has always excelled at building characters who feel genuinely three-dimensional, and The 7th Month showcases that gift in full force. D.D. Warren is one of crime fiction’s most compelling detectives – sharp, stubborn, fiercely competent – and pairing her with Flora Dane is a masterstroke. Flora is not a sidekick or a victim waiting to be saved; she is a force of nature operating on her own moral frequency, someone whose methods D.D. doesn’t always approve of but can’t afford to ignore. The friction between these two women, each shaped by violence in entirely different ways, gives the narrative an emotional backbone that most thrillers in this space simply don’t have.
The plotting is relentless and meticulously constructed. Gardner maps out a series of murders that initially seem disconnected, then methodically draws the threads together in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable in retrospect. The investigation pulls D.D. and Flora into increasingly dangerous territory, and Gardner is skilled at escalating stakes without resorting to cheap shock tactics. There is genuine craft in how she builds dread – not through explosive set pieces alone, but through quiet, creeping realizations that the killer may be closer than anyone suspected. The pacing across 12 hours and 22 minutes never loses momentum; if anything, the story tightens its grip as it moves toward its conclusion.
As a listening experience, The 7th Month is exceptionally immersive. The dual-narrator format serves a narrative purpose beyond simple character differentiation – it reinforces the thematic split between institutional law enforcement and the kind of justice that lives outside the system. Whelan’s chapters carry a visceral, almost claustrophobic energy, while Davis grounds the broader investigative threads with clarity and control. The audiobook format, arguably more than the printed page, allows the contrast between these two perspectives to land with full emotional impact. Listeners who appreciate strong atmosphere alongside strong plotting will find this a thoroughly satisfying combination.
This audiobook is an ideal choice for longtime fans of the D.D. Warren series who are ready to see their favorite detective pushed in bold new directions, but it also functions as a compelling entry point for listeners new to Gardner’s work. Fans of authors like Karin Slaughter, Tess Gerritsen, and Harlan Coben will feel immediately at home here. Those who love crime fiction that takes its female characters seriously – that gives them complexity, contradiction, and genuine agency – will find The 7th Month especially rewarding. This is thriller writing operating at a high level, and in audio form, it delivers everything the genre promises and then some.
Download & Listen
Ready to follow D.D. Warren and Flora Dane into one of Lisa Gardner’s most gripping investigations yet? You can download The 7th Month right now at KTAudiobooks.com and have Julia Whelan and Jonathan Davis pulling you into the story within minutes. Don’t let this one sit in your queue – once you press play, you’ll understand exactly why this series has earned such a devoted following.
- Soulful_ExplorationThe 7th Month
- The 7th Month A Detective D. D. Warren Story - 1-805865683The 7th Month
- The 7th Month A Detective D. D. Warren Story - 2-805865668The 7th Month
- The 7th Month A Detective D. D. Warren Story - 3-805865647The 7th Month
- The 7th Month A Detective D. D. Warren Story - 4-805865635The 7th Month
