Twenty years later

The murder of wildly successful author Cameron Young in 2001 drives this enjoyable if less than credible thriller from Donlea (The Suicide House). The primary suspect in Young's headline-grabbing death was Victoria Ford, but before she could be tried, Victoria died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Messages left on her sister's answering machine that day and the identification of Victoria's remains, recovered at Ground Zero, in 2021 lead Avery Mason, the host of a popular TV news show, to investigate the cold case. New evidence suggests that somebody may have framed Victoria for Young's murder. Proving Victoria innocent--and finding the real killer--is just the leverage Avery needs in her cutthroat contract negotiations with the network executives. The case also offers a chance of redemption to retired FBI agent Walt Jenkins, who now spends his days lost in a bottle of rum. With a dangerous secret in her past threatening to come to light as the Young case evolves, Avery races the clock to solve more than one mystery. Never mind that this secret could have been easily uncovered by anyone researching her life. Breathtaking pacing and clever plot twists mask thinly developed characters. Donlea's fans will be satisfied. Agent: Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary. (Jan.)

Twenty years after an accused murderer's initial meeting with her attorney is cut short by the 9/11 attack, a shocking discovery reopens the case, and several other mysteries as well. The circumstantial evidence that Victoria Ford whipped and choked and hanged her lover, bestselling author Cameron Young, was strong, the forensic evidence even more damning. Nonetheless, Roman Manchester was poised to take on her defense when the attack on the World Trade Center, where he had his office, rendered the whole case moot. When a bit of bone extracted from the wreckage 20 years later is finally identified as Victoria's, ambitious American Event anchor Avery Mason, avid for a big story that will strengthen her hand as she bargains for a new contract, envisions the ratings she'll get from retelling the story, which features Cameron's then-pregnant wife, professor Tessa Young; the abortion that prevented Victoria from having any more children; a ghoulish murder scene; and a lurid sex tape. Walt Jenkins, who handled the investigation back in 2001, comes out of retirement in Jamaica to help Avery, little knowing that she has another, more deep-laid motive for her sudden burning interest. For her part, Natalie Ratcliff, the wealthy college friend Victoria hoped would help her pay Roman Manchester's enormous bill, is hiding a secret of her own. So many parties to the new investigation are hiding so many secrets, in fact, that when the big reveal finally comes, it seems both utterly logical and somehow beside the point of whatever the larger pattern might be. An entertaining thriller with often unrelated surprises lurking around every corner up to the final anticlimax. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.