The Murder List

The Murder List is a new book out by Hank Phillippi Ryan.  Ryan is a long time news reporter in the Boston market and has written many mystery novels and won many awards both for her TV career and for her writing.

I have read some of her books in the past, but must admit I never became a big fan of her characters or her mystery novels.  But I was asked to read this new stand alone book for a discussion group. 

It is a fun entertaining plot, with all the good details of this new mystery genre, the psychological thriller twist.  Like the first in this genre, Gone Girl, you are led down the garden path, thinking you are headed in the correct direction to figure out who killed the young girl from the office, but you always wonder, "are you being led astray?"     Now there have been so many that I began to realize that there was going to be a twist at the end and I knew we were heading the direction of The Girl on the Train or The Silent Patient.  All books that follow this new formula.


This is the story that is based on the kind of experiences Ryan knows first hand, set in the Boston State House, situated in the neighborhoods and streets of Back Bay, Boston. 

Rachel has left her job at the State House and gone back to law school.  She is married to a top Boston, defense attorney, Jack Kirkland and is going to intern for his arch nemesis, Martha Gardiner, the top prosecutor for the state.  The story starts as Rachel is working during the summer as Martha's intern and the case they are assigned to is an old unsolved case that may have new evidence coming to light.  As we watch the current story unfolds Rachel and Jack also have some chapters of flashback experiences, that lead us up to and converge with present day events.

Well told and creative, Ryan does keep you in suspense until the end.  Though I thought I knew what was coming there was a satisfying ending to the book.  Those in the book group who had not read other books like this were completely surprised at the end.  I enjoyed this Hank Phillippi Ryan novel.