Just Jennifer

A Good Killing by Allison Leotta (Touchstone, May 2015)

Federal sex-crimes prosecutor Anna Curtis has just called of her wedding when she receives a call from an old friend from her hometown in Michigan: the long-time, much beloved high school coach has been killed in a car crash and Anna’s sister Jody is accused of the crime.  All outward signs point to Jody’s guilt: she has a crush on the coach in high school, was often seen arguing through the years with the coach’s wife, a woman who graduated only two years ahead of Jody and appears to have been with Owen Fowler just hours before he died.  Anna is confident of her sister’s innocence and with the help of longtime friend and Afghan War veteran Cooper Bolden, Anna finds herself not only investigating Coach Fowler’s death but a town full of secrets and the perfect façade it has created.  When Anna gets too close to the truth, she touches more than one nerve and the town turns against the Curtis sisters as Anna searches for a strategy before the justice system fails her sister more than Anna feels it already has.  Torn between returning to the life she had built for herself and staying with what is left behind of her family in her hometown, Anna knows there is more to Jody’s story and needs to decide how much she wants to know and how much truth she can live with.  Fast-paced and tightly plotted, the narrative effectively shifts between Jody’s story---beginning in high school---and Anna’s story as she tries to save her sister, and maybe in the process, herself as well.