Identity

Bestseller Roberts (Nightwork) gives readers another strong protagonist to root for in this otherwise rote standalone thriller. After a peripatetic childhood, 25-year-old Morgan Albright has finally made a home for herself in a quiet suburb of Baltimore. To help with her mortgage, she takes in her friend Nina Ramos as a housemate. Shortly after Morgan begins dating a charming patron at the bar where she works, she returns home one day to find Nina’s battered, lifeless body. Over the following weeks, Morgan discovers that her boyfriend is actually a serial killer and identity thief—and that she, not Nina, was his intended target. On the advice of the FBI, Morgan flees to the home of her mother and grandmother in Westridge, Vt., to begin her life anew. But can she, with a killer on her trail? Roberts switches between Morgan’s point of view and those of the killer and his FBI pursuers to successful enough effect, but there’s a whole lot of narrative bloat in the form of inconsequential dialogue and plot repetition. Roberts devotees will fall in love with Morgan, but this is unlikely to become a fan favorite. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (May)