House of Lies

Veteran Boston journalist Rosencrance (Bone Crusher) ably unravels the complex tangle of evidence and bizarre twists of the high-profile murder of Jim Cannon in this gripping tale of mariticide. Jim, a legal eagle who founded a successful agency to collect bad hospital debts, was in the midst of an impending divorce with his wife, Kelley, a schizophrenic former prom queen. Once a bitter child custody fight ensued, all the rules of polite engagement went out the window. Soon after, Jim was found by his housekeeper in a closet of his and his estranged wife’s Nashville home—naked and dead. Rosencrance works methodically through the tragic story and hews closely to the facts, revealing a marriage plagued by addiction, emotional instability, and insidious extramarital affairs. While questions remain about the damning verdict that put Kelley away (despite mounting police evidence and testimony suggesting she wasn’t guilty), Rosencrance’s blending of the police procedural with high-octane details makes this a compulsively readable story. Agent: Janet Benrey, Benrey Literary Agency. (Jan.)