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At one time, Tim Wallace had what might be called a "golden" life. Together with his two best friends, Danny and Will, he's established a security company that's just beginning to be successful. He's blessed with the perfect life partner, Maggie, and a well-loved pet retriever, Kiley. However, in the flash of a moment, his life changes from heaven to hell. He's convinced a reluctant Maggie to accompany him on a little boating outing. While he's busy fishing her hat out of the water, there's a huge explosion on the boat and Maggie disappears without a trace. In a terrible state of grief, Tim can't handle the fact that the detective who investigated the case, Detective Jonathon Novack, believes that he murdered his wife and is on a relentless drive to prove Tim guilty. Tim soon finds himself the victim of several well-placed lies that indicate that he may have murdered others. It's the kind of situation where it's impossible to prove yourself innocent. So Tim, together with Eden Alexander, the sister of his lawyer and fellow dog lover, tries to prove that someone else is behind these crimes, a someone whose identity or motivation he can't begin to fathom. Tim is a likeable character, and it was easy to empathize with his situation and experience the frustration he felt dealing with Novack's pigheadedness and at his own inability to prove the accusations against him to be wrong. The plot required the reader to accept some rather preposterous happenings; e.g., that a stranger in a bar would tell Tim about a woman that he murdered and that Tim would ultimately be named her killer. There was a fair amount of suspense around who the actual villain was, but zero around what would happen between Tim and Eden. Unfortunately, the resolution was quite improbable and formulaic. It's always interesting to me to see how the author of a series that I like handles his first standalone effort. On the whole, Rosenfelt succeeds; but I have to admit to preferring the Andy Carpenter books. Perhaps it's just that I enjoy the lead character so much or that in those books, the author has more room to maintain a humorous tone than is possible in a thriller. Being a former resident of New Jersey, I enjoyed his extensive geographic references; however, I think that for someone without that connection to the state they may have been too much. Overall, the book is entertaining and involving; but it doesn't hold up to much examination.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, October 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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