The Graves

March 13, 2017
Wechsler’s snappy follow-up to 2016’s Mission Hill finds Abby Endicott, homicide chief of the Boston District Attorney’s office, on the hunt for a killer who’s targeting college girls working as escorts. When the clues lead Abby and Det. Kevin Farnsworth to Tommy Greenough, the son of a prominent U.S. senator, Abby is forced to play politics. Meanwhile, Abby’s boss, Max Lombardo, decides to run for mayor, leaving his job open, and Abby’s name is thrown into the mix. Unfortunately, her wealthy Beacon Hill family doesn’t approve of her career choice, and her boyfriend’s shady past might complicate things. The whip-smart Abby reads very much like Stephanie Plum with an edge, and her idiosyncrasies, like her inability to balance her checkbook (after being cut off by her family) and her tendency to bail once romantic relationships become serious, only make her more likable. Wechsler expertly balances serious subject matter with Abby’s self-effacing, often funny first-person narration. Readers will be eager for Abby’s next case. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg and Rostan.

February 15, 2017
The sophomore case for Abigail Endicott, Boston's chief homicide prosecutor, looks like just one piece of bad news after another.Abby's brief walk to the Liberty Hotel, where her boyfriend, black sax player Tyson Clarke, is part of the entertainment for a posh reception, is interrupted when she's mugged by a drug dealer and sometime informant she knows from court, where he's a witness in a murder trial. "You have to stop mugging people," she tells him kindly as she picks herself up, "at least until our case has gone through the appeals process." She's pulled away from the reception by Detective Kevin Farnsworth's news that Boston's finest have found a woman's corpse--stripped, raped, and posed--that eerily recalls the murder a month earlier of Boston U. sophomore Rose Driscoll. Sidelined by the violence that closed her first case (Mission Hill, 2016), Abby's so determined to get onto this one that she's willing to cross swords repeatedly with her boss, politically ambitious district attorney Max Lombardo, who's spooked when the trail promptly leads Abby straight to an influential senator's son. The discovery of a third victim confirms everyone's suspicions that they're up against a serial killer. If that revelation isn't exactly a surprise, Wechsler has plenty of other surprises up her sleeve concerning Abby's stuffy and disapproving family, an unexpected political opportunity offered to her, the common denominator that links the victims, and the investigation and trial. And she juggles them all with an assurance that makes her future look a lot more secure than her heroine's. Catnip for readers attached to Boston, believably strong women, legal intrigue, or any combination of the above.

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April 1, 2017

Abby Endicott, chief of the Boston District Attorney's homicide unit, returns to work too soon after recuperating from the drama in Mission Hill. Investigating her first serial killer case, she discovers that the victims, all college women, each had a history with a senator's son. Combining well-developed characters and court scenes, this is a solid choice for readers of Linda Fairstein's legal mysteries.--LH

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