cover image Die for You

Die for You

Lisa Unger, . . Crown/Shaye Areheart, $24 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-307-39397-5

Thriller author Unger's intriguing if overstuffed stand-alone introduces a tough and grudgingly vulnerable heroine who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if it threatens to tear apart her life. Isabel Connelly, a bestselling novelist, and her loving husband, Marcus Raine, a computer game designer, have it all, including an elegant prewar apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. When Marcus doesn't come home one night, Isabel goes to his office, where she's confronted by a dozen people with weapons drawn. Det. Grady Crowe later informs Isabel that not only is her husband missing but he's been lying about his past, having stolen the real Marcus Raine's identity years earlier. Despite a text from Marcus urging her to forget about him, Isabel vows to track him down. Usually adept at juggling multiple plot lines, Unger (Black Out ) dilutes Isabel's story with point-of-view shifts and unnecessary subplots, including one about Crowe's marital woes. (June)