Just Jennifer

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge, September 2012)

If you have never read a mystery by Hank Phillippi Ryan it is time you did and The Other Woman is a brilliant place to start.  This is the first book to feature news reporter Jane Ryland and Detective Jake Brogan.  Jane Ryland thought she had it all as a rising television star with Channel 11 news in Boston; when the station is hit with, and loses, a slander suit after Jane refuses to reveal her source, Jane finds herself jobless and a known in the local press as “Wrong-Guy Ryland”.  The editor at the Boston Register is willing to give Jane a chance as a favor to Jake Brogan who has worked with Jane in the past and with whom Jane shares a mutual attraction, though they both know, especially know, they must not even give a hint of impropriety.  The first assignment Jane is given is to cover the Senate candidate, and former governor’s wife, Moira Lassiter, who has all but vanished from the campaign trial.  Not pleased with the puff piece assignment, Jane keeps her mouth shut, happy to have any assignment at all, but beings to poke around more than her editor asked.  Jake is working on two murder cases, both women found dead near bridges in the Charles River.  Residents of Boston are concerned there is a serial killer loose, but Jake assures them that the deaths are unfortunate coincidences and there are a lot of bridges spanning the Charles River.  When a third body is found, Jane is stunned as it is the body of the witness she protected at trial.  Jake suspects the woman is Jane’s source, as does her newspaper.  As Jane learns more about the latest death, she realizes there may be a way to clear her name without admitting to her source and is able to convince Jake he may need to take a closer look at the first two deaths as Jane thinks she has found a connection between the three young women.  At the same time, Jane is tracking down leads as to why Moira has been staying out of the spotlight and what her husband Owen has been up to in his spare time.

Ryan misses no detail.  Everything in this story is there for a reason and it is up to the reader to figure out why and what importance a person or event has.  The plotting is tight, the pacing tense but brisk.  The outcome of the Bridge Killer is not impossible to figure out, though there is one nice twist for Jane.  What comes out of Jane’s investigation into Moira Lassiter is surprising as are the details surrounding Owen’s campaign for Senator.  Jane and Jake are well-developed characters who can go in as many directions as Ryan chooses to take them.  A pitch-perfect thriller with the best words to see in a description of a book: First in a New Series.