The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (audio)
Protagonist: Jane Ryland
Setting: Boston
Rating: 3.7
Jane Ryland has lost her job as a Boston television reporter — even though she was in the right, she refused to name a source, costing her TV station millions in a lawsuit and earning her the nickname “Wrong Guy” Ryland. She lands a newspaper job, where she must begin at the bottom and prove herself. In the meantime, her one-time love interest, Det. Jake Brogan, is investigating the murders of young women found under bridges. The media quickly conclude there’s a serial killer loose; Brogan doesn’t think so. The third plotline involves Gov. Owen Lassiter, running for a senate seat. Ryland is convinced he’s having an affair with a young woman who keeps popping up in photos of him at campaign stops. But if Ryland is wrong again, it could really cost her career. All of these plotlines converge, of course, in this great thriller, in which nothing is what it seems.
As a newspaper journalist, I also really enjoyed the descriptions of journalists. Newspapering is far from a glamorous life, and we see Ryland having to share a desk with another reporter and subsisting on drive-through tacos. Then again, you can also feel the adrenalin flow as she works on a big story, the magical part of journalism.
