The Dead Man's Wife (Coletti Novels)
After leaving the Philadelphia PD, Andrea Wilson has reinvented herself as a defense attorney married to the lead researcher at Beech Pharmaceutical. But she’s having an affair with an assistant district attorney, and her husband, Paul, has migrated to the dark side. Paul and his team are on the edge of a breakthrough with a drug that may end Alzheimer’s disease. The financial implications are enormous, and Paul, in advance of the clinical trials, has cut a deal to share the drug’s formula with a crime syndicate. Andrea wakes up to find her bedroom swimming in her husband’s blood, but there’s no body. Realizing the adulterous wife will always be the prime suspect, she runs, staying one step ahead of the law as she tries to make sense of the situation. Heading the investigation is Detective Mike Coletti, Andrea’s long-ago lover. As he investigates, however, he realizes that Beech Pharmaceutical is also connected to other killings, forcing him to question whether Andrea is a killer or a convenient patsy. Fine hard-boiled crime fiction combining a striking, noirish evocation of Philadelphia and a fascinating new detective hero. --Wes Lukowsky