Three Strikes

September 11, 2017
At the start of Kessler’s sturdy third crime novel featuring juvenile forensic psychologist Audrey Harte (after 2016’s Two Can Play), 18-year-old Mackenzie Bell, the daughter of Audrey’s childhood best friend, Maggie Jones, arrives in Edgeport, Maine, looking for information about her biological family. Maggie is dead, and Mackenzie’s father isn’t listed on her birth certificate, so the teen turns to Audrey for help. Maggie hid her pregnancy from Audrey, but Mackenzie’s age suggests that she was born while Audrey was incarcerated for murdering Maggie’s dad, Clint, who sexually abused Maggie. Audrey assumes that Clint is Mackenzie’s father, but some digging reveals that her baby wasn’t the only thing that 14-year-old Maggie kept secret. Meanwhile, a thug called Ratchett attempts to blackmail Audrey’s boyfriend, Jake Tripp, in connection with a past crime. Kessler relies too heavily on coincidence, but her plot still intrigues, neatly capturing and capitalizing on the complexity of adult sibling relationships and the unique nature of small-town justice. Agent: Miriam Kriss, Irene Goodman Literary Agency.