Perfect Little Lives

In this addictive mystery from the Brown twins (Someone Had to Do It), 23-year-old Simone seeks the truth about her mother’s decade-old murder. After Simone’s father was convicted and jailed for the crime, 13-year-old Simone was cast out of her home in an idyllic New Jersey cul-de-sac and forced to move in with her aunt in New York City. Now, she works a dead-end Manhattan PR job while trying to make her side hustle as an online book reviewer pay enough to cover her attempts to exonerate her father. Cracks are beginning to form in her relationship with straitlaced lawyer Reggie, and she’s facing further stresses from Pia, a journalist who wants to interview her for a documentary about Simone’s mother. When Simone learns from her white childhood neighbor, Hunter, that his father (a judge) and her mother had a yearslong affair that Hunter’s father was determined to keep secret, she finally has a plausible lead in the case—but what happens if she falls in love with Hunter? The Browns deliver their trademark mix of steamy sex and social commentary in an easy-to-binge package. This is bound to please fans of Shonda Rhimes. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Dec.)