THE MURDER LIST

The prosecutor's new intern is married to her greatest rival on the defense: a threesome built on secrets, lies, and corpses.

Thirty-four Emmys, 14 Edgar R. Murrow awards, many prizes for mystery novels, and other honors...certainly investigative reporter and author Ryan's (Trust Me, 2018, etc.) past successes are impressive. Unfortunately, her latest legal procedural will not join them. At the center of it is an unrealistic and poorly developed character named Rachel North. Formerly an administrator in the office of a state senator she had the hots for (let's call him Stereotypical Older Male Character No.1), Rachel's first career was destroyed by a scandal that took down her boss as well. "What a novice I'd been then. Thirty and dumb. Well, thirty and inexperienced. Thirty and still discovering my goals. And my skills." Now it's six years later, and she's discovered those skills in a big way—she's married a prominent defense attorney (Stereotypical Older Male Character No. 2), has been admitted to Harvard Law School, and, as the book opens, is beginning an internship in the office of the furiously driven, enormously powerful, ethically suspect district attorney (Sleek Female Suit No. 1) who happens to be her husband's sworn enemy. Clearly somebody is using somebody to get to somebody. Obviously, most suspense novels rely on keeping the reader in the dark about something. But a big, glaring omission in what is presented as first-person interior monologue—as if the person is redacting their own thoughts—is one of the least impressive gambits. It is central here.

If you like subtlety and interesting characters in your crime novels, look elsewhere.