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Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Trust Me

You won't know who to trust by the time you finish reading Hank Phillippi Ryan's newest stand-alone novel Trust Me (#810).  Just when you think you have things figured out in this twisty book, like Mercer Hennessey, the protagonist, everything you believe to be true is stood on its head.

Mercer really needs the money her editor Katherine is offering her to write a true crime book covering the trial of the notorious Boston Baby killer Ashlyn Bryant.  No one believes her innocent plea in the murder of her daughter Tasha Nicole.  When the toddler's body washes up on Castle Island in Boston Harbor, it takes a while to identify the remains.  What is clear, however, is that the child has been murdered.  The body turns up in a tattered garbage bag.  But who is Baby Boston, and how did she wind up in the water?  After Ashlyn Bryant is finally connected with the remains, she has more versions of what happened than anyone can believe.   That's why Katherine wants Mercer on the case, following the trial; Mercer has lost her own toddler daughter and husband in a horrible accident, so Katherine knows that the trial will have meaning to her.  Who better than to write this particular story?  But when the jury acquits Ashlyn in what everyone assumed would be a slam-dunk case, things are only getting started...

Ms. Ryan really knows how to twist the plot and keep the reader questioning what the truth is here.  Is Ashlyn really innocent?  Or did she manipulate the facts in her favor?  When Katherine deposits Ashlyn on Mercer's doorstep to stay with her until the book is complete, is Mercer at risk?  Can she believe anything anyone is telling her as she races to finish the manuscript on time?

I found this book hard to put down as the kaleidoscope of facts kept changing.  Wow.  Keep them coming, Ms. Ryan!

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