This is an excel­lent week to show­case this favorite book—Hank Phillip­pi Ryan’s The Oth­er Woman. (See the two rea­sons why at the end of this post.) It’sVol­ume #1 of the Jane Ryland series. In this book, Jane is a jour­nal­ist out of a job, in dis­grace, and pos­si­bly owing a mil­lion dol­lars for her sup­posed error. The pub­lish­er’s blurb includes: “Dirty pol­i­tics, dirty tricks, and a bar­rage of final twists, The Oth­er Woman is the first in an explo­sive new series.”

But let me quote from a few reviews. One said: “Boston news­pa­per reporter Jane Ryland seeks to uncov­er the iden­ti­ty of the mis­tress of a Sen­ate can­di­date. Her inves­ti­ga­tion inter­sects with the hunt for a pos­si­ble ser­i­al killer. The book has all the nec­es­sary com­po­nents for a great mys­tery: mur­ders, sex, scan­dal, gor­geous char­ac­ters, mon­ey, priv­i­lege.”

Anoth­er gives this review: “Oh man, this was a tremen­dous­ly good read. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I LOVE a book that makes me sit up and take notice. The Oth­er Woman did that, and then some. This is a page-turn­er from the get-go, with pro­tag­o­nists who are flawed but incred­i­bly like­able, try­ing to solve a mys­tery that, believe me, turns into one very cre­ative cli­max.”

When I first read this book, I com­ment­ed: “There’s the oth­er woman in the red coat, but she’s not the only ‘oth­er’ woman in this engross­ing mystery/thriller. From nuanced char­ac­ters to sur­pris­ing plot twists, this is one good read for any­one.”