Under the Shadows

In Florio’s engrossing fifth mystery featuring Magpie, Mont., reporter Lola Wicks (after 2017’s Reservations), Lola, who’s taken to drugs since her husband Charlie’s death in a terrorist bomb explosion, reluctantly agrees to do a human interest story about overseas adoption for a popular magazine, to demonstrate to a social worker that she’s competent to care for her eight-year-old daughter. Soon after she arrives in Salt Lake City to interview high school hockey star Le Cong Trang “Frank” Shumway, a Vietnamese boy who was adopted by a white family at age 10, Lola learns that Frank is under arrest for the murder of Sariah Ballard, a neighbor and family friend. Frank’s hockey stick was found near Sariah’s body. Delving into Frank’s story, Lola becomes certain that he’s been framed and determines to find the real killer. In her tireless and perilous pursuit of the truth, Lola slowly begins to return to the person she was before Charlie’s death. Few will be able to resist this moving tale of redemption. [em]Agent: Barbara Braun, Barbara Braun Associates. (Mar.) [/em]