Just Jennifer

After The Crash by Michel Bussi

Eighteen years ago, a plane from Istanbul to Paris crashes into the Swiss Alps, with one known survivor: a three-month-old girl, thrown far enough from the plane to escape the fiery inferno.  But two infants were on board: the granddaughter of a wealthy family and the granddaughter of a more modest family.   A judge must decide if the baby is Lyse-Rose or Emilie and the baby will be known for the next eighteen years as Lylie.  Hired by the wealthy family to find the true identity of the baby, a private detective unable to find the truth sits as his desk, ready to commit suicide until he spots something in the yellowed newspaper that he missed for all these years, the deceptively simple solution to the secret, a secret that someone is still willing to kill to keep.  Told from the detective’s point of view and Lylie’s, a portrait of two-decades old mystery starts to emerge with more twists and turns that the trails in the Swiss Alps where this all began.  Deception and treachery, fierce love and egos all collide in this first gripping psychological thriller by a French author to be published in English. 

Just Jennifer

The Ex by Alafair Burke

Olivia Randall is formidable in the courtroom; her personal life has pretty much always been in a shambles as evidenced when her ex-fiancé’s daughter Buckley Harris reaches out to her to help her father Jack.  Jack has been arrested for the murder of Malcolm Neeley along with two bystanders.  Neeley’s son Todd was a disturbed teenager whose murderous rampage at Grand Central one morning killed Jack’s wife and Buckley’s mother.  Jack and other survivors filed suit against Neeley, but lost just shortly before Neeley was killed.  The fantastic story of how he was at the football field the morning of the murder but didn’t kill anyone is quickly debunked when no one can locate the woman who is said to have invited Jack to the field and gunshot residue is found on his shirt.  Motivated initially by guilt, Olivia sets out to side with Jack, certain he didn’t kill anyone, but as she takes a closer look at the evidence she wonders if the man who was clinically depressed twenty years ago after their break-up has finally snapped.  This complex, convoluted case is enough to make a terrific stand-alone thriller, but coupled with the damaged, tough as nails on the outside, loyal to a fault heroine Olivia Randall, it could, readers will hope, be only the first appearance of Olivia.

Just Jennifer

The Good Goodbye by Carla Buckley

Cousins Rory and Arden are closer than most sisters are.  When the two go away to school together and a fire breaks out, a tragedy occurs that unravels years of secrets and changes everything the family believed, one small detail at a time.  There are often two sides to every story, but in this case, there are often three: told from three points of view, Natalie, the mother waiting to see if her daughter will live or die, and Rory and Arden, the truth about the story of Natalie and Rory’s father Vinnie, who she first dated, and the restaurant they have nurtured is slowly revealed.  The relationships between Rory and her mother and Rory and Arden are viewed from different angles until the truth about how the fire began is revealed.  The mystery of the fire effectively serves as the impetus that starts these events that will reveal the most devastating truth at the very end, a truth that will save one family but destroy another.  

Just Jennifer

Confucius Jane by Katie Lynch

After the death of her graduate school mentor, the only poetry Jane Morrow finds herself able to write is fortunes for her aunt and uncle’s New York Chinatown fortune cookie company.  From her office window, Jane has a clear view of a noodle shop where she spies a young woman on whom she quickly develops a crush.  Sutton St. James is a doctor, studying to finish her course work and internship before applying for residencies, additional pressure added by her father, a former surgeon general who would prefer Sutton choose a prestigious hospital instead of the overseas stem cells research intern Sutton is hoping for.  In typical fashion, added by Jane’s charming, precocious pre-teen cousin, Jane and Sutton meet, fall in love, navigating their two lives and respective family issues.  When Sutton’s family problems make the evening news, the new pair is uncertain whether they each, and together, have the nerve and strength to try and make things work.  Light and breezy, there is something sweet in this novel about first love that keeps it from being typical and run of the mill and helps it maintain its charm without feeling heavy handed and overdone.