Hush

November 30, 2009
Bestseller White, Cosmo
's editor-in-chief, takes a break from her Bailey Weggins series (Lethally Blond
, etc.) with this stand-alone thriller that generates a real sense of jeopardy while avoiding clichés. Newly divorced 44-year-old marketing consultant Lake Warren finds her latest job devising a marketing plan for a Manhattan fertility clinic rewarding until her ex-husband, Jack, sues for full custody of their two young children. While her lawyer warns her not even to date so Jack won't have leverage against her, Lake gives in to a one-night stand with the clinic's flirtatious Dr. Keaton. After falling asleep on his penthouse terrace, Lake wakes to find Keaton murdered. Worried that the police will accuse her of the murder, Lake begins her own investigation until she learns that someone is stalking her. A subplot about the clinic's questionable practices adds to the tension, but doesn't detract from the main plot with its myriad twists.

January 1, 2010
White shelves hard-used series heroine Bailey Weggins (Lethally Blond, 2007, etc.), who could certainly use a break, to create just as much havoc for another New York professional who wants to have it all, except for the corpse.

Now that Lake Warren's estranged husband Jack has contested the joint-custody arrangements for their two children, it looks as if work is her only solace. So she throws herself into her job as a freelance marketing expert for the Park Avenue Fertility Center with redoubled energy. Unfortunately, she also throws herself into the bed of Dr. Mark Keaton, the come-hither consultant who's just announced his intention of joining the firm. Lake wonders briefly how her ill-advised fling will sit with Jack's lawyer but gives no thought to the possible repercussions if Mark gets stabbed to death while she's catching a post-coital snooze on his balcony. Was the killer a jealous lover (evidently the jungles of Gotham are full of those), a Park Avenue client who thought she'd been the target of a monstrous fraud, or a colleague who'd filched the key to Mark's apartment from nurse Maggie Donohue? Lake will have to follow the trail while she's looking over one shoulder at the increasingly curious police and over the other at someone who seems bent on terrorizing or killing her.

Despite the menacing damsel-in-distress prologue, thriftily repeated verbatim in chapter 28, both the mystery and the killer are too lightweight to vex your sleep. Job No. 1 here is multiplying suspicions, not resolving them.

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January 15, 2010
In her first stand-alone thriller, White (known for her Bailey Weggins series, most recently "Lethally Blonde") effectively blends mommy-lit issues with murder and suspense. Recently separated and finally finding her emotional footing, Lake Warren has been hired as a marketing consultant for a Park Avenue fertility clinic and has even started a flirtation with a handsome doctor. But then she's hit by a double whammy. Her soon-to-be-ex is seeking full custody of their two children, and the doctor has been murdered (hours after Lake slept with him). Afraid that the police will suspect her and that her husband will use this against her in their custody battle, Lake keeps quiet about her hookup. Now she is faced with scary late-night calls, an attack on the family pet, a husband looking to trip her up, and the police just this close to coming after her for murder. VERDICT The mix of family pressures and murderous suspense makes this a page-turner that will appeal to readers of Michele Martinez, Lisa Unger, and Karen Rose. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/15/09.]Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

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