It Takes One

February 15, 2016
Criminal psychologist Audrey Harte, the feisty heroine of Kessler’s tense, fast-paced debut, sometimes appears as an expert on When Kids Kill, a TV show based in Los Angeles. Years ago in her hometown of Edgeport, Maine, Audrey helped her best friend, 12-year-old Maggie Jones McGann, murder Maggie’s father, who had been molesting Maggie. After spending time in a juvenile correction facility, Audrey went on to earn a Ph.D. When Audrey returns to Edgeport, where she hasn’t been in seven years, for her mother’s birthday, she faces an angry sister, a mother who blames her for being involved in a murder, and a town where everyone views her as a danger. Her first night, she inadvertently meets Maggie, and they have a fight in public. When Maggie is found dead on the beach the next morning, Audrey is the obvious suspect. In her effort to prove her innocence, Audrey reconnects with Jake Tripp, her teenage love, who brings back all the confusing and ambivalent feelings from their past. The action builds to compelling and unexpected conclusion.

February 15, 2016
A feisty protagonist with a dark past that's not exactly a secret goes back to her roots in Kessler's new series. Audrey Harte has her dream job: she's a criminal psychologist who landed a gig on a popular LA-based television show about homicides involving child perpetrators. But her mother's birthday is coming up, and Audrey has been summoned back to her hometown of Edgeport, Maine--the place she's been running from all of her adult life. Things start out as they typically do: Mom asks Audrey to pick up her drunk of a father on her way home. Dad is passed out in the local hot spot, which conveniently belongs to her ex-crush and resident town bad boy, Jake Tripp. But it's not just Jake and her dad that Audrey finds there. She also finds Maggie Jones, the girl whose father she helped kill when she was a teenager. Maggie's dad was sexually abusing his daughter when the two young teens murdered him to stop him from raping her. While Maggie went into psychiatric rehabilitation, Audrey was sent to a home for delinquent girls. Now, she finds herself confronting a drunk and out-of-control Maggie in the parking lot, and, after Maggie starts a fight, Audrey pushes her to the ground and drives off. Problem is, the next morning Maggie's body is found on the beach, and the No. 1 suspect is none other than her old friend Audrey. Kessler's style is breezy and compelling, but some of her reveals are less than startling. And for someone who is supposed to have a lot of insight into the way people think and act, Audrey is often very slow on the uptake. However, she's a likable heroine, and between her moxie and sense of humor, she'll soon become a favorite of those who like their suspense less dark and bleak. Readers will have some of the major plot points figured out well in advance of the book's climax, but Audrey is definitely a keeper.

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Starred review from February 15, 2016
Audrey Harte is a successful Los Angeles criminal psychologist who works with children and appears on a television series called When Kids Kill. She hasn't returned to her home town of Edgeport, Maine, in several years, moving as far away from her past as possible. Growing up in the small town left some serious scarsAudrey's best friend, Maggie, was sexually abused by her father, and no one would help. The teenage girls took matters into their own hands and killed him. Maggie was referred for psychiatric help, and Audrey was sent to a girl's juvenile facility, where she was mentored by the psychologist in charge, who led Audrey to her career. Returning home proves highly stressful, as she must encounter her alcoholic father; her bitter sister; Jake, the heartbreak of her life; and Maggie, from whom she is estranged. The tension really starts building when, a day later, Maggie is found dead, and Audrey becomes the prime suspect. Jake, who now owns a good chunk of the town, is still single, and though he and Audrey are wary of one another, they work together to try to clear Audrey's name and find the killer. This first in a series combines an intriguing mystery with a terrific cast of characters. Fans of Nancy Pickard or Lisa Unger will find much to like in Kessler. Expect her to become very popular very quickly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)