Last to Know

July 21, 2014
In this plodding whodunit from Adler (Please Don't Tell), Boston homicide detective Harry Jordan retreats to his lakeside cabin in Evening Lake, Mass., to decompress after the recent breakup with his fiancée, Mallory Malone. But he can't relax for long when a neighboring house, belonging to Lacey Havnel and her daughter, Bea, suddenly goes up in flames, with Bea the only survivor. Little is known about the Havnels among the small community of Evening Lake, but the unofficial matriarch of the area, Rose Osborne, agrees to take 21-year-old Bea in while the investigation into the fire continues. Rose and her husband, acclaimed suspense novelist Wally Osborne, share their home, known as a haven of calm, with oldest son Roman, twins Madison and Frazer, and youngest son, Diz. When Jordan digs deeper into the lives of Lacey and Bea, he's surprised by the larcenous trail he discovers, making him question whether the fire was an accident after all. In predictable fashion, another corpse shows up, and the Osbornes are revealed to be more complex than they first appeared. Readers will find nothing new or revelatory, and the interstitial sections written by "the killer" are more annoying than insightful. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

July 1, 2014
Disillusioned with being a cop and distraught over the breakup with gorgeous TV crime investigator Mallory Malone, Boston detective Harry Jordan retreats to his western Massachusetts cottage for some R&R. It doesn't last long. On his first night there, Jordan witnesses the spectacular explosion of a home on the other side of Evening Lake, where Bea, the 21-year-old, waiflike daughter of mystery-woman Lacey Havnel, is seen running from the burning building, her hair in flames. Jordan's investigation brings him into intimate contact with another neighbor, famous horror-novelist Wally Osborne, who was seen rowing away from the Havnel cottage minutes before the inferno. As Jordan gets closer to the Osbornes but further from solving the crime, another young woman is murdered, mere steps away from the Osbornes' door. There's a serial killer stalking the family; now it is up to Jordan to determine who and why before another person dies. Adler reaches back to Now or Never (1997) to continue the story of Harry Jordan in a sinister tale of deadly deception.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)