The Stories You Tell

May 1, 2019
Things get much too personal when a private eye's brother is implicated in the disappearance of a local DJ. Not a sound sleeper, especially when she's over at her girlfriend Catherine's place, Roxane Weary is roused in the middle of the night by a frantic call from her brother, Andrew. Andrew is panicked that he might be in trouble--real trouble, more than his home stash might otherwise get him into. He tells Roxane the story: Addison Stowe, a girl he once knew, came by his apartment in a state of terror, made a phone call, then disappeared into the night. Now Addison's missing and Andrew's the last person to have seen her. He knows he needs an ally like Roxane if the cops come knocking because he has a suspicious scratch on his face that suggests he might've been more than just a potential safe harbor to Addison. But Andrew claims he hadn't seen or heard from Addison for ages before this last visit. Roxane wants to protect Andrew, whom she trusts in spite of his unconvincing story. She reaches out to Tom Heitker, a friend on the force who was her late father's closest friend, to ask for his help and also because, well, she's missed him. The two have put a brief romantic interlude aside to pursue a less fraught friendship, though Tom may be interested in revisiting their past. Roxane and Tom connect Addison's presence at Andrew's to the Nightshade Club across the street, where Addison was a sometime DJ, and to the BusPass dating app. Just as things start to go Roxane's way in the investigation, Mickey Dillman, a former cop connected to the case, turns up dead, bringing Roxane back to square one and Andrew into police custody. Lepionka's keen eye for integrating national news and technology into her developing characters' plotlines produces a story that's timely in more ways than one.

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May 27, 2019
At the start of Lepionka’s entertaining third mystery featuring Columbus, Ohio, PI Roxane Weary (after 2018’s What You Want to See), Roxane gets a late-night call from her brother, Andrew, asking for help. A short time before, Addison Stowe, a DJ working at Nightshade, a nearby nightclub, appeared at his door in great distress, begging to use his phone. After making the call, Addison rushed out, despite Andrew’s efforts to detain her. When Roxane tries to find Addison, she discovers that she hasn’t returned home, Nightshade is completely deserted, and that a few days earlier a policeman visited Addison’s apartment asking for her. Roxane’s search for Addison becomes personal after the police learn that Andrew was the last person to see her before she went missing; they arrest Andrew for drug possession, a pretext to detain him while they investigate Addison’s disappearance. A cop’s murder and troubles in Roxane’s long-term relationship heighten the drama. Fans of plucky female detectives will look forward to Roxane’s further adventures. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary.

May 1, 2019
PI Roxane Weary's brother, Andrew, asks for her help after a woman he hardly knows, Addison, comes to his home in the middle of the night, obviously upset, then runs out after using his phone. Andrew is concerned about Addison and wants Roxane to find her. Since she has only one active case?identifying who is sending out defective leggings under the brand of a high-end manufacturer?Roxane begins a frustrating search for the woman, who had been working as a DJ at a seedy nightclub. Complicating matters, the nightclub closes after another of its employees goes missing; then the body of a police detective who was also looking for Addison is found in the river. An online dating site seems to be at the heart of things, but Roxane can't seem to put it all together. There are problems on the personal front, too, as Roxane's relationship with her lover, Catherine, turns sour. If the cases in this third mystery are less compelling than those earlier in the series, Roxane herself, a remarkably well-drawn and interestingly flawed character, continues to command interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2019

Private investigator Roxane Weary heads to her brother Andrew's place when he calls her in the middle of the night with a strange story about a girl he used to work with, Addison Stowe, who showed up at his place in a panic, begging to use the phone, and then ran out. Roxane and Andrew trace her to the shabby nightclub Nightshade, where she worked as a DJ, but the club is inexplicably closed. Although Roxane keeps the police in the loop, her brother is arrested, a cop is discovered dead in the river, and a possible witness is cornered and shot by the SWAT team. Addison is the only link to the three men. As Roxane digs for more on the missing young woman, she finds there are other men connected to Addison through a dating app called BusPass. VERDICT Building to a chilling and surprising conclusion, the third book in Lepionka's Shamus Award-winning series (The Last Place You Look) is both intricately plotted and character-driven, with a complicated protagonist. Suggest for fans of detective novels with unconventional sleuths. [See Prepub Alert, 1/7/19.]--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2019

Roxane Weary is concerned when brother Andrew telephones, distraught that DJ friend Addison came by in near hysterics, then left without explanation. Then Addison's father tells the police she phoned him, incoherent but for the mention of Andrew, who's soon suspected of foul play. Third in the Shamus Award-winning series.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.