Book Review: The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Jane Ryland #2)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great characters in an intriguing fast paced story

Cons: I didn’t get to read it all in one sitting.

The Bottom Line:

Jane and Jake are back

With more heart pounding intrigue

You won’t put it down

The Wrong Girl is the Right Book

Last year, I read what I thought was a stand alone mystery by Hank Phillippi Ryan.  Instead, it turns out that it was the start of a new series.  The Wrong Girl is the second book in the series, and I found it stronger than the first.

On a Sunday afternoon in February, Jane Ryland’s former co-worker Tuck calls all upset.  She’s recently tried to get in touch with her birth mother, and is convinced the agency sent her to the wrong woman.  Since Jane is a reporter for a local paper in Boston, she smells a story, and Tuck feels Jane has the resources to help.

Meanwhile, Boston police detective Jake Brogan is called to the scene of a murder.  A young woman has been killed while two children under three-years-old are in the next room.  It appears to be a simple case of a domestic dispute gone bad except the woman has no identification in the apartment at all.  Who is this woman?  Why was she killed?  With Jane covering the murder for the paper, will she still be able to help Tuck?

The first book in the series felt like it had one too many sub-plots happening with part of Jane’s back story she was still facing.  This book doesn’t have that problem at all.  We are thrust into both of these stories from the beginning and it is hard to put the book down.  As I was reading, I kept thinking I’d stop as soon as the next revelation came, but when it did I found myself having to find the answers to the questions it raised.

It helps that we get the story from several different third person points of view.  There are four main ones that help fill us in on various elements of the story.  It’s used perfectly to ramp up the suspense.  And it also is handled perfectly, so we are never confused about whose head we are in on any given page.

Jane and Jake are great main characters who are very appealing all on their own.  I love spending time around them.  The cast of characters that surround them are intriguing and sympathetic, sometimes at the same time.  They all felt like real people long before the book was over, which made me care about the outcome.

 The book clocks in at 364 pages, but it is amazing what is crammed into the story.  Trust me, this book doesn’t feel long at all.  And the short chapters make things fly by that much faster.  Frankly, I didn’t mind at all because I had to know how things were going to end.

The suspense doesn’t let up until the very end, either.  I had to stop at one point with 20 pages left, and it bugged me until I could get back to get the final resolution.

So if you want an intriguing story that will pull you in and not let you go, I can’t recommend The Wrong Girl enough.  You’ll be caught up in the story before you know it.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book through Amazon’s Vine program.

And once you are hooked on this story, you'l want to read the rest of the Jane Ryland Mysteries in order.