TAKE MY BREATH AWAY

A London lawyer turned writer whose friend was murdered before his eyes before he could reveal a terrible secret crosses swords with a woman hiding a terrible secret.

Headhunter Dylan Rees’ cryptic reference to a law firm whose practitioners have been dying under suspicious circumstances piques the curiosity of his friend Nic Gabriel. But at the reception at which Dylan had promised to tell Nic more, he’s stabbed to death, apparently by the ex-girlfriend who’d killed herself over his infidelities five years ago. Now Nic, who’s already written one true-crime book making a case for the innocence of the infamous Dr. Crippen, is more eager than ever to identify the firm in question. Meanwhile, in a parallel series of alternating chapters, paralegal Roxanne Wake begins her new job at Creed, the nation’s leading civil-rights law firm. Ben Yarrow, the senior partner who recruited her, introduces her to rainmaker Will Janus, junior partner Joel Anthony, gossipy personal assistant Chloe Beck and indispensable client Ali Khan, the legendary owner of Thrust Media. Excited as she is to be working on the case of Thrust sales rep Gina Mandel’s sexual-harassment complaint against marketing director Howard Haycraft, Roxanne’s still more obsessed with the fear that someone will recognize her as Cassandra Lee, whose storied past would be red meat to a true-crime writer. It’s only a matter of time before Nic and Roxanne meet, and when they do, sparks will fly.

If you can accept his extravagantly improbable premise, Edwards (The Hanging Wood, 2011, etc.) spins a rattling good yarn, rich in incident and plot twists both unforeseeable and all-too-foreseeable.