Keep Her Safe

Tucker’s heart-pounding standalone romantic thriller opens with a peculiar suicide. Austin police chief Jackie Marshall mutters rambling self-recriminations to her son Noah, makes him promise to keep them secret, and then shoots herself. Noah can’t figure out whether she was trying to atone for her own misdeeds or those of her former partner, Abraham Wilkes, or to protect someone in the Austin PD. Then he receives a confidential envelope from his mother’s lawyer, and the note leads him to a hidden compartment holding $98,000. Between that and an unexpected visit from a pair of FBI agents, Noah becomes determined to get to the bottom of the story behind his mother’s confession and death. He goes in search of Gracie, Abraham’s daughter, one of the few people who might have answers. Tucker (Until It Fades) crafts a shrewd mystery that never falls flat, even as the steady, subtle romantic relationship between Noah and Gracie heats up the page. Agent: Stacey Donaghy, Donaghy Literary. (Jan.)