Fool Her Once

Set in 2019, this well-constructed mystery from Elm (Delusion) stars journalist Jenna Sinclair, who left her job at the New York Sun two decades earlier under a weight of guilt after an article Jenna she wrote revealed that Denny Dennison, a culinary student who never knew his biological father, was the illegitimate son of a psychopathic rapist/murderer executed in 1978. The media frenzy that followed wreaked havoc on the young man’s life. Jenna fled to the Hamptons, where she wrote for local papers and helped her husband run their bed and breakfast. Jenna’s recent exposé about eateries in the Hamptons has garnered considerable attention, and she has renewed her affair with Ryan McCallister, formerly her editor at the Sun. When Ryan is attacked after a night spent celebrating Jenna’s success, Jenna believes Denny could be the culprit. Her search for Denny pulls her into a disturbing spiral of events and leads to more than one murder. Elm provides some nice misdirection and loads the plot with liars and murky, shifting motives. Despite an ending that’s a bit too predictable and tidy, readers will be satisfied. (Mar.)