Just Jennifer

The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge Books, September 10, 2013)

In the second suspense novel to feature Boston newspaper reporter Jane Ryland and detective Jake Brogan, are both investigating cases involving adoption and the foster care system, cases that would seem completely disparate but take make interesting and unexpected twists and turns that force the two back into an uneasy working relationship that could cost both of them their jobs if their superiors were to learn the two are also lovers.   Jane has been approached by her friend Tinker who has recently been reunited with a woman whom the adoption agency says is Tinker’s birth mother, but whom Tinker is doubtful of because of things her adopted mother told her.  With Jane’s help, Tinker returns to the adoption agency where the two begin to ask questions and Jane begins to suspect that the agency is falsifying records and purposely reuniting children with the wrong birth parents.  In a parallel story, Jake is investigating the brutal murder of a young woman, leaving two toddlers who he learns are her foster children.  An empty cradle in the apartment that was the scene of the murder has Jake concerned there is another child in danger, but the two children are too young to offer much information.  Soon Jake finds himself on the same trial as Jane, and when Jane begins to receive threatening phone calls, is almost run off the road, and has her apartment broken into, Jake must separate his feelings for Jane and keep her safe, knowing that a killer is on the loose, and onto Jane, and that Jake must find the person before more people, and innocent children, are hurt.  A compelling suspense novel with the additional layer of how we come to believe what we are told about our families and how those things become the truths we base our lives on.   Ryan, a journalist, is an impeccable storyteller, revealing what is necessary at the time, hinting at the rest to create tension and suspense.