Random Road

March 6, 2017
The bad choices made by Geneva “Genie” Chase, the narrator of Kies’s arresting debut, have landed her back in her hometown of Sheffield, Conn., working for the local paper. When a multiple murder—the six victims were all members of a sex club, and the murder site was their clubhouse—is discovered in a Long Island Sound mansion, Geneva is the only reporter on the scene. This, Genie realizes, is the story that could revive her career if she can get past her two major stumbling blocks: vodka tonics and bad taste in men. Her court-ordered attendance at an AA meeting reunites Genie with Kevin Bell, a high school friend with his own problems. While trying to figure out what Kevin means to her now, Genie is still entangled with a married lawyer reluctant to end their affair. Meanwhile, hunting for two killers in a wealthy community soon puts Genie at odds with the police and people with secrets to hide. While the sheer number of troubled characters and events taking place in a short time span weighs down the plot, Kies has created a likable if flawed heroine readers will want to see more of.

March 1, 2017
A hard-living newspaperwoman juggles multiple men and battles the bottle on her way to redemption via a high-profile murder story.Punching a cop lands Sheffield Post reporter Geneva Chase on probation, with mandatory attendance at AA meetings as a chaser. But a grisly multiple murder at wealthy George and Lynette Chadwick's home on the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound might be Genie's ticket to redemption. The Chadwick homicides aren't the only high-profile crime stories on her radar. She's also following the case of Jimmy Fitzgerald, a spoiled rich kid recently arrested for murder and, in the view of Genie's tart first-person narrative, a sociopath. Meantime, an unexpected upsurge in her love life challenges her resolve to keep her sobriety and her eye on the journalistic ball. When she runs into childhood pal Kevin Bell at an AA meeting, she finds herself drawn to his adorable awkwardness. And out of the blue, her hot ex Frank Mancini calls, wanting to rekindle a romance she'd thought was dead. As she ricochets from Frank to Kevin, Genie also toils in the trenches on various stories. She gets injured by a burglar in a HumVee while tracking a series of local robberies and gingerly explores the discreet local S&M scene's ties to those murders. Her research on this big crime includes the history of the house and the lives of the victims. Though the heroine's love life may be less interesting to mystery fans than her amateur sleuthing, Kies' fiction debut lays the groundwork for an entertaining series.

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Starred review from March 1, 2017

Reporter Geneva Chase has written hundreds of stories, but what brings her back to Sheffield, CT, and her hometown newspaper, isn't a news piece, it's her alcoholism. Yet this may be her chance at professional redemption, as she investigates one of the most grisly murder scenes of her career. Probing the brutal slaughter of six people at an exclusive gated community, the intrepid journalist also uncovers all kinds of secrets, from a young man whose father bribes a judge to let him off on a hit-and-run charge to a swingers' club. At the same time, Geneva also tries to hide her drinking problem from the newsroom. A chance encounter at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting will change her life, but not before it's jeopardized by her connecting the dots and tracking down a vicious killer. VERDICT Kies's debut mystery introduces a reporter with a compelling voice, a damaged woman who recounts her own bittersweet story as she hunts down clues. This suspenseful story will appeal to readers who enjoy hard-nosed investigative reporters such as Brad Parks's Carter Ross.--LH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2017
If Geneva Chase botches this news story, chances are her career is over. Struggling with a serious alcohol problem, on probation at work, and dating a married man, she can barely drag her hungover self out to the scene where six adults were slaughtered in an upscale Connecticut Gold Coast community. She has the scoop and she has the experience, but the utter lack of a reasonable motive has her stymied. As does the explosive desire she feels on meeting her high-school sweetheart at an AA meeting. First in a new mystery series about a failing newswriter who exposes enormous inequities between community haves and have-nots, and the chaos, malice, and moral disconnect of social privilege and power. Kies tells a taut, fast-paced tale, imbuing each character with memorable, compelling traits that help readers connect with them. Less effective are the unanswerable questions posed throughout the book: Do things happen for a reason? What is life's purpose? Still, those who enjoy J. A. Jance's Beaumont series or Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone mysteries will appreciate Geneva Chase.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)