The Cutaway

Washington, D.C., TV producer Virginia Knight, the narrator of TV journalist Kovac’s nail-biting first novel, takes an interest in the case of a missing woman, attorney Evelyn Carney, who was last seen running out of a Georgetown restaurant after a public fight with her husband. When Evelyn’s body is found in a cove on the Maryland side of the Potomac, Virginia applies her reporter instincts and nose for a good story to investigate the murder. Meanwhile, she’s beleaguered by Nick Mellay, a new manager at her station, who starts firing members of her staff and takes over her job, supposedly temporarily. Still, she manages to follow leads from police commander Michael Ledger, an ex-boyfriend of hers, and from Paige Linden, a law firm colleague of Evelyn’s, which point toward Ian Chase, an assistant U.S. attorney, as a person of interest. As Virginia starts uncovering information being withheld from the investigation and irregularities in witness statements, she’s left in doubt about whom to trust. Readers will want to see more of this tenacious, lovable heroine. [em]Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Mar.) [/em]