The Murder List
by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Amazon US / UK / AU / CA / B&N
Law student Rachel North will tell you, without hesitation, what she knows to be true. She’s smart, she’s a hard worker, she does the right thing, she’s successfully married to a faithful and devoted husband, a lion of Boston’s defense bar, and her internship with the Boston DA’s office is her ticket to a successful future.
Problem is–she’s wrong.
And in this cat and mouse game–the battle for justice becomes a battle for survival.
The Murder List is a new standalone suspense novel in the tradition of Lisa Scottoline and B. A. Paris from award-winning author and reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
My new boss. Martha Gardiner. The woman Jack usually refers to as “Satan in pearls.” He never laughs when he says it.
Forget the speed of light. Nothing travels faster than gossip… Secrets only take a few beats longer. Gossip is the fuel of power.
At noon, Kurt had brought us lunch, wrapped in the white waxed paper of the Pietro Pan Deli. The Italian sandwiches had too much salami and too many onions, and I’d wondered if that was a sneaky way to encourage us to hurry. I wished the jury room had windows we could open.
You could send lawyers to law school. And judges to judge school, or whatever they had. And those people were versed in all the rules. But at the end of all the rule-following and objections and legal procedures, when the gavel banged and the door closed, when you got into a jury room, it was regular people. Flawed people. Biased people. Who may or may not agree to those rules. Who can manipulate and pressure and influence. And, depending on the power of jurors’ consciences, no one would ever know.
I flinch at the sound of my name. I’ve felt so invisible, even I almost forgot I was here.
My Review:
This was extremely clever, so smartly plotted, brilliantly paced, and engagingly written. I fell right inside and didn’t surface for most of the day, only under the threat with death by my internal organs and whining from my neglected husband. This was my first experience reading this sly wordsmith and I was a quick convert, I’ll buy whatever she’s selling as I totally fell for her tricks, I never saw it coming. The writing was superb and cleverly amusing as well as perceptively detailed, but the characters – they were vibrant and alive for me on the page. Ms. Ryan has exceptionally strong word voodoo. Like a binging dieter, I greedily want to amass and consume all her clever words.
About the Author
Hank Phillippi Ryan is the bestselling author of eleven award-winning novels of suspense. National reviews have called her a “master at crafting suspenseful mysteries” and “a superb and gifted storyteller.”
Her first psychological standalone, TRUST ME (now in paperback), is an Agatha Award nominee, and was named BEST of 208 by the New York Post, Real Simple Magazine, BookBub, Crime Reads, and PopSugar. Mary Kubica says: “Dazzling!” and Lisa Gardner says “Mesmerizing!”
Hank is also an award-winning investigative reporter at Boston’s WHDH-TV. In addition to 36 EMMYs and 14 Edward R. Murrow awards, Hank’s won dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking journalism.
Her work has resulted in new laws, people sent to prison, homes removed from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in refunds and restitution for victims and consumers. She’s been a radio reporter, a legislative aide in the United States Senate and an editorial assistant at Rolling Stone Magazine, working with Hunter S. Thompson, Richard Avedon, and Richard Goodwin.
Hank is a founding teacher at Mystery Writers of America University and served as president of national Sisters in Crime. She blogs at Jungle Red Writers and Career Authors.
Great review. You are always introducing me to new authors! This one looks great.
You and I are twins! We seem to review the same books! This is on my TBR pile! By the way I know Hank and she is a terrific woman!
I haven’t been reading thrillers all that long but I am enamored with this author, I’ve drunk her Kool-Aid!
Didn’t I say it? It was great wasn’t it? Welcome to thrillers. Are we going to see horror in your blog?
No zombies!
Great review. Hank Phillipi Ryan started out as a newscaster in Chicago when I lived there decades ago. Then when I moved to the Boston area, she also moved to Boston news. Now she is an accomplished author! How impressive!
sounds great! lovely review as always
Gimme! This is my kinda read!
You make me want to read this one. Great review as always.
Totally Addicted to Reading
I like the sound of this one!
Great review. I hadn’t heard of this book until now, how have I missed it? Looks like my kind of read.
Amazing review my friend. this book looks and sounds absolutely fantastic. I am really glad you fully enjoyed reading it, thank you so much for sharing your awesome post and for putting this book on my radar DJ.
This sounds so good! I want to read it!
Great review. Sounds like a good suspenseful read!