‘Something terrible has happened’

Killing Hour,

by Andrew Gross (HarperCollins, RRP $40):

Jay Handler has what appears to be a perfect life, with a beautiful wife and children and a successful career.

During a romantic dinner with his wife to mark their anniversary, a phone call comes that changes everything: “Something terrible has happened”.

That something terrible is the suicide of his nephew Evan, a troubled young man with mental health issues who never seemed to get the help he really needed.

But was it suicide? Jay is not convinced and is determined to find our what was behind the tragic death.

His search for answers leads to revelations he could never have imagined about his brother’s past and a conspiracy that stretches back decades.

Evan’s is not the only death in the mix and the more Jay looks, the worse his brother’s past appears.

He finds that his nephew was in contact with a police officer who also ends up dead. Then, his brother Charlie’s ex-girlfriend is murdered and photos of her mutilated body are sent to Charlie.

This one was easy to read but tricky enough to keep me guessing.

Andrew Gross wrote five best-sellers with James Patterson and is the author of the Ty Hauck series and as much as I enjoyed those books, this one is probably my pick as his best yet: it’s fast, furious and in places quite sad, but most importantly, it lets you care about the characters.

Gross also has that Patterson-like knack of writing in short, snappy chapters that make a book easy to pick up and put down.

However, it should be no surprise (if you’ve read any of his other books) that you won’t want to put this one down.

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