Fresh Meat: The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan is the first book in the Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan thriller series about  a journalist and cop in Boston (available September 4, 2012).

Jane Ryland had thrown up after the verdict.

She’d twisted her damp hair away from her face, avoided the mirror, and contemplated how long she could hide in the Suffolk County Courthouse ladies’ room. Forever would be good. Instead, she’d gritted out a smile for the scrum of cameras as Channel 11’s defense attorney promised her television colleagues an immediate appeal of the jury’s decision. The two then marched down the granite steps of the courthouse, the lawyer’s pinstriped arm protectively across Jane’s shoulder, as if a million-dollar damage verdict were the honorable cost of doing business.

But soon after, Jane could read the counterfeit smiles, rescheduled meetings, abysmal story assignments. Her TV reporting career was over. She’d protected her source, but nobody was protecting her.

The Other Woman is a tightly plotted whirlwind of a book that mixes sex, politics, a little murder, and a lot of revenge. 

TV reporter Jane Ryland lost her job for doing the right thing: protecting a confidential source. She’s also the subject of a million-dollar lawsuit for defamation and has earned a tabloid nickname of her own: “Wrong-Guy Ryland.”

She manages to land a six-month tryout for one of the few jobs left in newspaper reporting in an attempt to regain her credibility and build her nascent print career all with the threat of the lawsuit hanging over her head.  She’s attracted to her married boss, but even more attracted to a handsome detective, Jake Brogan. Both relationships complicate her already complicated life.

Her first assignment is to get an interview with Moira Kelly Lassiter, the wife of Governor Owen Lassiter, during his run for U.S. Senate. The candidate’s wife has stopped giving interviews, which seems odd so close to the election. Jane’s quest for the story not only leads her to the deep dark secrets of the campaign, but also into the police investigation of a string of murders by the “Bridge Killer,” being investigated by Detective Brogan. 

Ryland tries to get the story, maybe pushing a little too hard, so that she misses things right in front of her. I wanted her to get the story and get it right; to get her credibility and her life back.

The other woman. Exactly what I’m working on, too. Jane smiled as she yanked her black wool jacket from the hook and cinched the belt around her waist. It was late, close to midnight, but her weariness was evaporating. She was beginning to feel like a reporter again.

They all do it. So what? Cheating was unacceptable. For anyone, much less a U.S. Senator. The public had a right to know about it. Before the election. And she would be the one to tell them.

No mistake about that.

Like Ryland, author Hank Phillippi Ryan knows her stuff—she’s a real investigative news reporter for 7News in Boston has won 27 Emmys for her TV work. Her first series is based on a different TV reporter character called Charlotte McNally.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Other Woman is fast paced, engaging, unpredictable, and fun. I’ve even added the first Charlotte McNally book, Prime Time, to my TBR pile.

Have you read any books by Hank Phillippi Ryan? What do you think?

Have we piqued your interest in The Other Woman? Enter for a chance to win a copy by commenting on Hank Phillippi Ryan’s “Confessions of an Investigative Reporter” post.

See more coverage of new releases in our Fresh Meat series.

Deborah Lacy likes speakeasies, yellow heirloom tomatoes, and crime fiction. She blogs over at Mystery Playground and Criminal Element. You can meet her on Twitter @quippy.

Read all posts by Deborah Lacy for Criminal Element.