It’s One of Us

In this enthralling if flawed psychological thriller from bestseller Ellison (Her Dark Lies), interior designer Olivia Bender and her ghostwriter husband, Park, have been trying for years to have a child, but each pregnancy ends in a miscarriage. The continuing disappointment is straining their marriage, with unspoken recriminations and resentments. Into this turmoil come two Nashville homicide detectives. The body of a woman has been found in a nearby lake, and DNA evidence links Park to the crime—not as perpetrator but as the biological father of the murderer. Park, who donated to a sperm bank when he was in college, learns that he has at least 28 offspring. When the police discover that the manner of the victim’s death eerily mirrors that of Park’s college girlfriend, Park is thrust into the center of a vicious media storm. The assorted points-of-view of the major characters, including Olivia, Park, the two detectives, and the murderer, provide subtle and shifting takes on the information presented by the other characters. Only a forced ending, followed by an anticlimactic epilogue, disappoints. Ellison reliably entertains. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Feb.)