Thursday, July 5, 2012

Review of The Other Woman by Hank Phillipi Ryan

The Other Woman
Hank Phillipi Ryan
Forge Publishing
Publish Date 9-4-2012
ISBN13:978032578
416 pages


Jane Ryland was going places in TV news that is until she got the camera pulled out from under her. Now she finds herself out of work and the forefront of a lawsuit as a result of a news story where she won’t reveal her source. She’s given a chance to work as a newspaper reporter on the Boston Register and is given her first assignment to interview the wife of a candidate to the Senate. But nothing is ever as it seems and Jane’s nose smells a bigger story one where there seems to be “The Other Woman” involved, and the more she investigates the deeper the subterfuge seems to go and the more danger Jane is put in because of it. In the mean time the case that got her fired from Channel 11 is raising it’s ugly head again and she may just get her head taken off because of it. She only has her wits and one particular sexy cop to protect her and they’re both spelling trouble with a capitol T.
Jake Brogan has his plate full with multiple murders that the press is screaming serial and the cops are trying to keep the screaming down to a dull thud. And the murders are taking him right into the path of a certain girl reporter that he’d like to know a lot better, but for professional reasons she won’t let him. But that doesn’t stop him from trying to keep her informed and keep her out of harms way especially since their paths seem to be crossing with great frequency and he’s not above using those crossings to strengthen his case for them to be a pair.

Hank Phillipi Ryan has wowed me before with her Charlotte McNally series and she’s doing it again with her debut novel in her brand new Jane Ryland series. Her quirky, and laughable sense of humor is still front and center and there’s a deeper and more complicated feel to Jane that makes her a most interesting protagonist. Her storyline is a quagmire of puzzle pieces that she fits together perfectly, but she doesn’t fill in all the pieces until the end but much sooner than that she had me hook line and sinker. Her dialogue is filled with cop-speak and reporter jargon that made me wince, tense and laugh sometimes all on the same page while she filled my head with images from the words on her pages. Her characters are awesome, both bad guys and good guys and sometimes I had trouble figuring out who was who until she told me. Her Jane is a complicated woman who’s nose for news sometimes battles with her sense of responsibility and it was my pleasure seeing her work them out. They always say write what you know about which is what makes this such a slam dunk of a crime drama told in an expert voice that knows exactly what she’s talking about. If you like seriousness  mixed with humor you’ll love Hank Phillip Ryan, if you’re a crime drama lover, a lover of mystery or heck just a fantastic read put this on your wish list for September. Hank Pillipi Ryan is a brilliant and relatively new voice in this genre and already she’s had to move over her Emmys for all her writing awards, so if you haven’t tried her do and if you have and you’re biting at the bit, your wait is almost over.
Hank thanks for another unforgettable journey fueled by your imagination I can’t wait to see where we travel from here.

I’m also excited to announce that Hank will be spending the whole month of October with us at the B&N.com General Fiction forum where we will read and discuss this brilliant new novel.
Buy the book here visit the author's website here and in October join us at the B&N.com General Fiction forum here as we read and discuss the novel as a group and with Hank joining in











 Here are the Charlotte McNally novels by Hank Phillipi Ryan
 

 

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