Hank Phillippi Ryan

Ryan continues her string of excellent standalone suspense novels. Arden Ward works in a PR firm, managing crises for clients, but her boss has just told her that rather than lose a super-rich client, who has accused Arden of seducing her husband, he's firing her with two weeks' notice. He gives Arden one last client, to help her try to burnish her resume. The client, Cordelia, is the wife of a man who was found innocent of manslaughter when he hit a skateboarder in a parking garage. Her friends and her kids' classmates think he got off because he was rich and have shunned her and the kids.

I found Arden to be a well drawn and appealing character. As the story progresses, she realizes that she does not know enough about the case, and she comes to wonder whom she can trust. She has to add Investigator to her list of skills. She learns something mid-book that I knew had to be the proverbial gun on the mantelpiece, but I was wrong about the person it would shoot.

The ending seemed to leave open, maybe even suggest, that we might see Arden again at some point. That would be fun.… (meer)

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Forge Books for allowing me to be a Super Reader for this book and read it in advance of its publication date (Sept 14 2021).

Lily Atwood seemingly has the perfect life. Or does she? She is an award-winning TV reporter in Boston. A single mom with a young daughter. Her publisher, Greer, is seemingly content to be out of the spotlight. Lily's life does indeed seem perfect....until the bouquet of flowers show up at her house with a card signed "From Cassie". Cassie is Lily's sister who disappeared when she was 18 and Lily was 7. Or did she disappear?

This is a fast-paced book that kept me guessing until the end. The characters are interesting and intriguing and the story sucks you right in.… (meer)

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

The First to Lie is about Nora, a pharmaceutical sales rep and Ellie, a reporter for a station that hasn't gone on air yet. Ellie is looking into the pharma company that Nora works for. The pharma company makes pills that help woman become pregnant.

Ellie meets a young woman outside her apartment and finds out (the next day) that this woman, Meg, is now a producer at the station and also working on the story into the pharma company. The pharma company is owned by a very wealthy family who has 2 children, Trevor and Brooke. Trevor is an accomplished sailor but mysteriously dies on a boat with only his sister on board. After his death, Brooke disappears and there is a gala being planned in Trevor's memory which Ellie thinks Brooke may show up to.

There are a couple of deaths and some deceit in this book but it is not rushed and wraps up nicely in the end. I have recently discovered this author, even though I've seen her on a local news channel. I am really enjoying reading her books… (meer)