Notorious by Allison Brennan

Title: Notorious (Max Revere novel)
Author: Allison Brennan
Publisher: Due out March 18, 2014 from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur
Pages: 337 Pages
How I Read It: ARC from NetGalley
Genre: Romantic suspense (very little romance), thriller, mystery
My Rating: 5 crowns
Description (from NetGalley):

Maxine Revere has dedicated her life to investigating murders that the police have long since given up any hope of solving. A nationally renowned investigative reporter with her own TV show and a tough-as-nails reputation, Max tackles cold cases from across the country and every walk of life. But the one unsolved murder that still haunts her is a case from her own past.

When Max was a high school senior, one of her best friends was strangled and another, Kevin O’Neal, accused of the crime. To the disgrace of her wealthy family, Max stood by her friend, until she found out he lied about his alibi. Though his guilt was never proven, their relationship crumbled from the strain of too many secrets. 

Now Max is home for Kevin’s funeral—after years of drug abuse, he committed suicide. She’s finally prepared to come to terms with the loss of his friendship, but she’s not prepared for Kevin’s sister to stubbornly insist that he didn’t kill himself. Or for an elderly couple to accost her at the airport, begging her to look into another murder at Max’s old high school. Max is more interested in the cold case at her alma mater than in digging around Kevin’s troubled life, but she agrees to do both. As Max uncovers dark secrets, she finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies that hit far too close to home. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that someone will do whatever it takes to make sure the truth stays buried.

My Thoughts:

This is the first book by Allison Brennan that I've ever read, but I've been really starting to read more romantic suspense and I belong to a loop where Ms. Brennan's been a very active contributor, giving valuable time and advice to those of us still in the very beginning of the author trenches. I'm sorry I waited as long as I did to read her.

Max fled her hometown in the aftermath of the murder of her best friend, when one of her other friends (Kevin) was accused and never cleared (though he was never convicted either). Thanks to the death of a roommate in college, she's become an investigative journalist and she specializes in cold cases. She returns home for the first time when Kevin commits suicide. It's then that little facts start coming to light that might finally reveal who actually committed the murder. 

Wow - there was a lot going on in this book. There were so many twists within twists within twists. Max is a great investigative reporter. She's incredibly independent, inexhaustibly curious, and (of course), recognized and asked to investigate a murder when she comes home for Kevin's funeral. I really couldn't put this book down and didn't have a clue who was behind the murders, much less why they had done it in the first place, nor just how the new murder tied into Kevin's suicide and her other friend's murder.

In short, wow. Go. Read this book. Read it now. You won't regret it. I'm definitely going to be reading more books by Allison Brennan in the very near future.

Five crowns!

Book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Review also posted at Tory Michaels' World.