April 15, 2021
When Trish and Peter Young don't show up at Hannah Ives' Italian dinner night, she checks out their house, finding that they have seemingly disappeared without a trace, missing both job and volunteer commitments. Trish later asks Hannah to deliver a flash drive to a reporter if a major indictment is not announced in two weeks. Before Hannah can get any details, Trish is shot, leaving her in critical condition and unable to be questioned. Using the little information she has, Hannah researches Trish's past, uncovering long-buried secrets and a scandal that will bring down the rich and famous if revealed. In the process, she reunites a family and saves Trish. The smart, principled main character, along with the richly described Annapolis, MD, setting and the warm family relationships at the heart of the story, are the main sources of appeal here.
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February 1, 2021
Missing dinner-party guests lead their hostess on a crisscross mission to save a life. Hannah Ives and her husband, Paul, presiding at a potluck Italian dinner in their Annapolis home, wait in vain for the tiramisu. The couple who promised it--their across-the-way neighbors, Trish and Peter Young--don't show up and don't answer their phones. When Hannah lets herself into their house with the key she uses to feed their cat when they're away, she finds the tiramisu in the refrigerator, the milk on the counter, Trish's phone in plain sight, but no Trish and Peter. After Peter turns up with an excuse about a business trip, Trish phones Hannah from central New York and asks to meet a few days later in a public place in Annapolis, where she explains that she was born Elizabeth Stefano and she's connected to a federal case in the Southern District of New York. She gives Hannah a flash drive with instructions about what to do if the case doesn't come up as scheduled. Before she can explain further, she's shot in the head from a passing car. Trish barely survives, leaving Hannah to travel to Syracuse, where Trish spent her childhood and where she had an unlikely recent meeting with someone from her past who wants to make sure she has no future. Talley's determined sleuth is more than a match for a ruthless adversary and some dubious plot contrivances.
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