Rehabbing the Innocent. But Is He Innocent?
Navigating our modern world where our reputations can be ruined in an instant is a challenge. Especially if a crime is involved. That makes a great premise for One Wrong Word, the newest thriller from Hank Phillippi Ryan.
In this case, the crime is a car accident that cost a man his life. Ned Bannister has maintained that he wasn’t drunk when he hit a man in a garage on New Year’s Eve. Surprisingly, the jury found Ned innocent, but his wife, Cordelia, has realized that the innocent verdict doesn’t mean their lives will return to normal, so she turns to Arden Ward.
Arden has made a career out of helping people rebuild their reputations after a scandal, real or imagined, has threatened to sideline them. But she is dealing with a crisis of her own – she’s just been fired from her firm as a result of a rumor. Helping the Bannisters is her last assignment. But when the case becomes more than she bargained for, can she save Ned’s reputation and figure out her own future? Who can she even trust?
As much as I love Hank’s mysteries, I’ve found her phycological thrillers to be hit or miss. That’s the case here as well. I really liked the premise and found the set up pulled me in. But then we got into the middle of the book. The problem here is that we have manufactured suspense. We get characters asking questions and not getting answers. And then asking the same questions over and over again. Sometimes, they are just asking themselves. Now, I get that authors can’t let their characters learn the truth the first time a question is asked or it makes the story too short. But in this case, some lies would have helped things. We could have gone off in one direction for a while before veering back to the truth. Instead, we just spun our wheels at times.
That’s not to say that things weren’t happening and the story wasn’t advancing. We just had too many scenes that didn’t really move the story forward.
Having said that, the climax, when we get there, is great and really does answer all our questions.
Arden is the main character here, and most of the book is told from her third person point of view. We get a few chapters from other character’s points-of-view, which does help build some suspense. So I’m not saying there is no suspense, just that it is drawn out too much.
Anyway, the characters are solid. I did find one to be annoying and whiney, but most of them are interesting, and I wanted to root for them to reach satisfying endings.
I am wondering if part of the problem is me. I don’t typically read phycological suspense. Maybe I’m expecting something different from the genre.
I listened to the audio again. This time, it was narrated by Gail Shalan who does a good job of bringing the story to life. Especially in a book like this, the narration could get in the way of the story, and she doesn’t do that at all.
If the premise interests you, there is a good story here. But One Wrong Word needed a few more events to happen to be a fully engaging thriller.
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